Clean Your Plate Lentil Salad

By Dana McMahan FoodConnect Louisville foodconnect.com@gmail.com Clean-Your-Plate Lentil Salad My husband eats lentils because I do the menu planning, and most weeks I include a lentil dish. He very dutifully eats these good-for-you dishes with varying degrees of enthusiasm. It's not that they're not good -- he's just still nutritionally a kid at heart and would prefer a pizza or a bowl of Cocoa Pebbles most any day. But the other night I made a dish that left him scraping his bowl. "I don't usually clean my plate with lentils," he commented. I knew we had a winner. The secret? An addictively good warm cherry vinaigrette dressing and chunks of good (read expensive) blue cheese. I found the recipe on Epicurious while trolling around looking for lentil salads and was intrigued by the sweet cherry and salty cheese combo. I adapted their bacon-y version for the two of us non-meat eaters for the below recipe. I especially liked that you can cook the lentils ahead of time. I made them in the morning before work so that when I got home all I had to do was whip up the vinaigrette and assemble the salad. This will serve two for dinner and two for lunch. We served it with some slices of grilled pizza dough we'd stashed in the freezer. Any good bread or some lavash would be fine. * 3/4 cup green lentils * 7 tablespoons red-wine vinegar * 1/4 cup olive oil * 1/3 cup finely chopped shallot * 1/4 cup water * 1/2 cup dried unsweetened tart cherries (about 3 ounces) * 2 tablespoons sugar * 3 1/2 cups baby or regular spinach leaves * 1/3 cup blue cheese (about 2 ounces) In a heavy saucepan cover lentils with water by 2 inches and simmer until just tender but not falling apart, about 15 minutes. Drain lentils well in a sieve. Rinse lentils under cold running water to stop cooking and drain well. In a bowl toss lentils with 2 tablespoons vinegar and salt and pepper to taste. (Lentils may be made 2 days ahead and chilled, covered. Bring lentils to room temperature before proceeding.) In a saucepan heat 2 tablespoons oil over moderate heat until hot but not smoking and cook shallot, stirring, until golden brown. Stir in water, cherries, sugar, and remaining 5 tablespoons vinegar and simmer, stirring occasionally, until liquid is reduced by about half, about 10 minutes. Reduce heat to low and whisk in remaining 2 tablespoons oil in a slow stream until emulsified. Season vinaigrette with salt and pepper. Add half of vinaigrette to lentils and toss well. Add spinach to four bowls (or two bowls and your lunch container for the next day) Drizzle remaining vinaigrette over spinach. Add lentils to the bowls and top with the cheese.