Lentil Salad

I've been craving lentils lately. Don't ask why, because I have NO idea. Lo-and-behold, this recipe plopped itself in my lap today! I only had to buy a couple ingredients, so I was sold!

Ingredients

1 pound (about 3 cups) dried lentils. This recipe works best with whole light brown lentils. (I went to Whole Foods so that I could get these in the bulk section. They only had green lentils. Meh, worked out ok)

1 teaspoon ground cumin

2 1/2 teaspoons salt

4 scallions, sliced in fine rounded pieces. This means little circles, my little geniuses.

4 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon black pepper… freshly ground for overachievers

1/2 cup olive oil

1 cup well packed minced parsley

Directions:

1. Put the lentils and about 5 1/2 cups of water in a 4 quart pot with the cumin and about half the salt.
2. Bring everything to a boil, then cover and simmer gently for about 25 minutes (mine took a little longer, probably because I used the wrong kind of lentils). Remove the cover, make sure that most of the water has boiled off (eh...also a lot of water left over. Also probably due to the wrong lentils), and that the lentils are softened (key!). Remove them from heat and set aside.
3. In a small bowl, combine the remaining salt, lemon juice, black pepper, olive oil, parsley and scallions.
4. One the lentils are lukewarm, pour the mixture in #3 over them and SLOWLY combine everything. If you stir to vigorously, you risk end up with a delicious, yet unappetizing mushy mess.
5. Feel free to improvise by adding split cherry tomatoes, finely diced celery, or shredded carrot.
6. You can serve immediately OR refrigerate for for several hours before serving. It really depends on whether you want to use it as a salad or a side dish. If you serve it as a salad, you can serve it over a bed of California greens or baby spinach.

I opted for the spinach salad version. LEGIT. I freaking LOVE the cumin/lemon combo. Love. It. I did put carrots in mine, but didn't have any celery or tomatoes. This seems like one of those recipes that you could just load the veggies into. I've got some experimenting to do...