A vegetarian friendly dinner that hits hard on both flavour and nutrition. An excellent way to enjoy bread, cheese and olive oil while keeping things healthy!

Time: 3/5
Not counting the lentil salad’s overnight stay in the fridge.

Effort: 3/5
The knife work was the hardest part.

Mediterranean Max

The sweltering summer heat is a good reason to break out my cold meal prep ideas. After all, the last thing I want to do during a sweaty midday at the office is eat a big, steaming hot lunch.

Some of my past successes include a scallop and honey mustard potato salad, as well as this pasta salad with a pickle brine dressing. But I have been looking for ways to incorporate more legumes in my diet for a long time, and this seemed like a good opportunity.

Beans are high in both protein and fiber, so it’s like they’re meat and vegetables rolled into one thing. That makes it a prime candidate to be the base for a mass produced lazy one pot meal prep salad.

That said, I’m concerned enough about protein quality that I’m not ready to make this meal a completely vegan one. That’s why I paired the lentil salad with a deliciously rich baked Brie, as well as some lightly toasted crusty bread to dip in the cheese.

If I’m honest with myself, I must admit that a big part of why I cooked this dinner was because I wanted an excuse to eat bread, cheese and olive oil while still staying on my diet. It’s much more sustainable if you keep moderate the amount of decadence, while putting in effort to make healthier ingredients exciting.

As a side note, the lentils came in 500g bags and I didn’t want to be stuck with an opened and partially filled bag. So I cooked them all at once and made a huge batch of lentil salad, only served some of it, and kept the rest for later on in the week. So keep that in mind when looking through the step by step photos.

Posts since the last recipe that was actually served with rice: 1

Dramatis Personae

Served 2.

For the lentil salad

• 200g dried lentils
• Half a carrot
• Half a cucumber
• 1 shallot
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 tsp dried mixed herbs
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp vinegar
• 1 tsp mustard
• 1L low sodium chicken stock, or vegetable stock 

For the baked Brie

• 100g Brie
• A few pistachios
• A sprig of rosemary
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 tbsp honey
• Salt and pepper to taste 
• Good crusty bread

Executive summary

Lentil salad

1. Bring stock to a simmer. Meanwhile, wash the lentils well and drain.
2. Simmer lentils for about 20 minutes, or until tender. In the meantime, wash and dice the vegetables.
3. Once lentils are done, drain excess liquid. Whisk mustard, olive oil and vinegar together.
4. Mix lentils, vegetables, aromatics and herbs with dressing. Season to taste.
5. Refrigerate overnight before serving.

Baked Brie

1. Crush the pistachios, and finely mince rosemary leaves. Peel the clove of garlic and cut into thin slices.
2. Take the Brie out of the packaging and place in an oven safe container.
3. Make cuts into the Brie to create a cross-hatch pattern. Insert garlic slices into the cuts.
4. Drizzle the Brie with honey. Top it with pepper, rosemary and crushed pistachios.
5. Bake the Brie at 180C/350F for 10-12 minutes, or more if it’s a bigger piece. Meanwhile, cut bread into pieces.
6. Allow the Brie to rest. Toast bread slices in the oven’s residual heat.
7. Serve warm.

Play by Play

Last things first. I put some chicken stock on the heat and waited for it to come to a boil. The lid is on to keep the heat in.

In the meantime, I rinsed the lentils well and drained them. Once the stock is up to a boil, into the pot the lentils go.

I also let the diced carrots spend a bit of time simmering, because I’m not too used to eating raw carrots.

Save the stock! Even though I have no further use for it in the salad, that doesn’t mean it isn’t useful in another recipe.

While the lentils were simmering, I also diced the cucumbers. I dug the seeds out with a spoon so there’s less moisture watering down the dressing. Speaking of which …

The garlic and shallots go into the warm pan I used to simmer the lentils. The residual heat can take the raw edge off of the aromatics. Next, I whisked the dressing together using the same fork used to scoop mustard from the jar. Talk about efficiency! No extra dishes unless strictly necessary.

Mix the cucumbers, lentils and carrots in the dressing and refrigerate overnight.

This is the next day, before I am ready to serve. The oven is preheating while I get everything together.

Slip some garlic slivers into the cuts in the Brie, and top everything with nuts and honey and the rest. Save some of the nuts for garnish at the end as well.

The Brie can get nice and gooey in the oven now, while I cut the bread.

A little snack for the chef. Bread, olive oil and some S&P – good food doesn’t have to be fancy!

I’m letting the Brie rest, while using the residual heat of the oven to toast the bread slices. When in doubt, always err on under-toasting the bread. I often find that the bread browns a bit further even after being removed from the heat.

Time to eat! There’s no meat in this, but you won’t miss it. There’s plenty of flavour and protein to satisfy even a gym rat like me.

Now there’s nothing to do but to take some bread and dip it in the cheese. Cheers!

Keep browsing by categories, or by tags: