So here’s the thing with lentils. I kind of hate them. I really hate their texture and could do without their flavour. But then a few days ago I wanted to have a substantial salad for lunch and had a tin of lentils in the pantry. I would never had added them but because the flavours I had already decided on were quite hearty, I thought the lentils would do well when added and I was right. Look, I’m not going to eat lentils all the time now but in this salad they’re actually pretty damn delicious.
I’ve concluded that lentils need to be paired with rich, robust flavours in order to taste good and this salad is packed full of that. I had a few pears that were at that point of being-delicious-right-now-but-will-be-disgusting-within-2-minutes so I decided to chop them into the salad as well as some crispy bacon, oozy gorgonzola and shredded baby spinach. I also imagine cubes of roasted butternut or sweet potato, feta and chilli would be absolutely delicious in a lentil salad because there’s a lot of flavour and texture there. Finished off with a super zesty dressing of fresh lemon juice and olive oil, this salad made for an incredibly delicious, filling lunch which I will be re-visiting really soon.
Ingredients
- 1 x 400g tin can of lentils, drained
- 2 pears finely sliced
- 250 g approximately 10 strips streaky bacon, chopped
- 75 g-100g around 1/2-3/4 cup Gorgonzola, crumbled
- 2-3 cups baby spinach shredded
for the dressing
- juice of 1 lemon
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
- In a large, hot frying pan, fry the bacon until crisp.
- Combine the lentils, sliced pears, crispy bacon, gorgonzola and spinach in a large bowl.
- In a smaller bowl, combine all the dressing ingredients then pour over the salad and toss.
- At this point the salad can be refrigerated for up to an hour or two. If you'd like to make it the day before, cover the undressed salad with plastic wrap and refrigerate until you are ready to serve.
I’ve had this recipe pinned to Pinterest for probably 8 years now, I’m always looking for more ways to ingest legumes/pulses while masking their boring-at-best icky-at-worst flavour AND texture. I was very intrigued by the unique combination of flavours in this recipe, but didn’t have access to blue cheese or bacon for the longest time. Finally, FINALLY the stars aligned and I got all the ingredients and made this tonight, and wow, I’m not even a huge fan of blue cheese, I contemplated substituting feta for a quick minute, but decided to give it a go, and wow, it fits so beautifully with the other elements. I did sautee the spinach very briefly in olive oil with minced garlic, used only 2 slices of Godshalls turkey bacon, and finished the salad with some sumac, but otherwise followed it to the letter, and honestly I can’t stop eating it. Plus, it tastes like it will be even better the next day once the flavours have had longer to meld, win-win! Finally transferring it to my “tried and true” Pinterest board! 🙂
Took a pic in case you want to see 🙂 https://www.reddit.com/r/tonightsdinner/comments/nlskis/lentil_salad_with_spinach_pear_gorgonzola/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
I have never had lentil in salad, but yours looks too good to not try 🙂
<3 <3 <3
Thanks Pang!
I was starving before this and now I cannot wait to get home!! I love lentils 🙂 Although, I don’t have gorgonzola, bacon or pears at home at the moment I will be making this this weekend!
Let me know what you think once you have!