Three-lentil salad

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 50 g lentils, dark green (Le Puy Lentils)
• 50 g lentils, brown, small (mountain lentils)
• 50 g lentils, red
• 3 cloves garlic
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 liter vegetable broth
• Salt
• 1 large onion(s)
• Vinegar (raspberry vinegar)
• Oil (rapeseed oil)
• salt and pepper
• chives
• radish
• leaf lettuce
• Sugar

Instructions

Working time approx. 40 minutes; Rest time approx. 1 hour; Total time approx. 1 hour 40 minutes

Cook the lentils separately in a third of the vegetable stock with 1 crushed garlic clove, a piece of onion, a bay leaf, and salt until just cooked through. Taste and taste, but cook the red ones first; they cook the fastest. All varieties should still have a slight bite, but of course, not be hard. Cooking times vary depending on the variety and age of the lentils. While the lentils are cooking, make a clear vinaigrette from vinegar, oil, salt, pepper, and a pinch of sugar and stir in the still-warm lentils. Once cooled (about 1 hour), season again and stir in the finely chopped chives; let it marinate. Serve on lettuce leaves, garnish with radishes, or use your imagination. This filling salad is also a great base for, for example, smoked turkey breast, scallops, eel, or pieces of smoked halibut. Many other combinations are certainly conceivable. A few more notes: Please don’t use large, flat lentils, as this will make the salad a bit “floury.” Lentils don’t harden when cooked with salt; that’s a myth (it’s hard to get flavor into unsalted lentils). You’ll need 1 liter of vegetable broth, etc., if you cook the three varieties simultaneously, but you can also cook them one after the other in the same broth. Then add each variety to the vinaigrette immediately after draining.