Warm lentil salad with seared beef, shallot and gherkins
Green lentils cooked with bay and thyme and dressed while hot with a mustard and shallot vinaigrette, crunchy gherkins and seared strips of beef, still pink inside, with bread for a complete lunch.
Method
- Rinse the lentils in a sieve. Peel the carrot and cut into 5 mm dice. Put the lentils and carrot in the saucepan with 600 g cold water, the bay leaf, thyme and crushed garlic clove. Bring to the boil over a high heat, then turn down to low so the water barely simmers, uncovered. Cook for 20–22 minutes using a timer, adding 1 g salt to the water 2 minutes before the end. The lentils are ready when tender to the bite with their skins still intact; add a little hot water if they become exposed.
- Meanwhile, finely chop the shallot. In the salad bowl, dissolve 2 g salt in the vinegar with a fork, add the shallot and leave to macerate for 10 minutes to mellow and flavour the vinegar. Finely dice the gherkins; wash, dry and chop the parsley. Add the mustard and a pinch of pepper to the shallot, then whisk in 30 g oil in a thin stream with a fork until the dressing is combined and slightly thickened.
- Drain the lentils in the sieve and remove the bay leaf and garlic. Reserve 1 tbsp vinaigrette in a bowl for the meat. Tip the lentils and carrot, still steaming, into the salad bowl with the gherkins and mix from the bottom: while hot, they absorb the dressing. Leave to rest while cooking the beef.
- Pat the beef strips dry with kitchen paper. Heat the 26 cm frying pan over a high heat for 2 minutes with 6 g oil until the oil smokes slightly. Spread half the beef in a single layer and leave untouched for 45 seconds to 1 minute, until the undersides are well browned. Turn with a sweep of the spatula, cook for 30 seconds and immediately transfer to the bowl of vinaigrette: the edges should be golden and the insides still pink. Let the pan heat again for 30 seconds, then repeat with 6 g oil and the remaining beef.
- Season the beef with the last gram of salt and a pinch of pepper and toss in the vinaigrette. Off the heat, add 2 tbsp water to the hot pan, scrape up the browned bits with a spatula for 20 seconds and pour these juices over the lentils. Add the parsley, mix and taste: the salad should be distinctly well seasoned; if not, add a pinch of salt. Serve the warm salad on two plates with the beef strips on top and a slice of bread each.
Variants and their steps remain below the recipe.
Lighter version
La vinaigrette moins abondante enrobe moins les lentilles, sans devenir plus acide puisque le vinaigre baisse aussi. Le bœuf, la moutarde et les cornichons gardent leur caractère, avec moins de pain pour absorber le jus.
- Bread (baguette or country loaf) : 50 g
- Extra virgin olive oil : 32 g
- Red wine vinegar : 8 g
In step 2, dissolve the salt in 8 g vinegar (2 level tsp) instead of 12 g, then add 20 g oil (2 tbsp) instead of 30 g.
Half the bread and a little less oil in the vinaigrette, with less vinegar too so it does not become too sharp.
On your plate
Recipe
744 kcal · protein 45 g · carbs 59 g · fat 35 g
Quantities per person
- 120 g Beef for stir-frying (shoulder, sliced 3 mm thick across the grain by the butcher)
- 60 g Green or brown lentils
- 315 g Water
- 50 g Carrots
- 0.15 g Dried bay leaves
- 0.25 g Dried thyme
- 2.5 g Garlic
- 50 g Bread (baguette or country loaf)
- 25 g Gherkins / small pickled cucumbers
- 15 g Shallots
- 5 g Flat-leaf parsley
- 5 g Hot Dijon-style mustard
- 6 g Red wine vinegar
- 21 g Extra virgin olive oil
- 2 g Fine salt
- 0.25 g Ground black pepper
Cooking tips
Ask the butcher for the central shoulder cut, paleron, Israeli cut no. 5 (כתף מרכזית), not false fillet (פילה מדומה, no. 6), which is lean and sinewy and stays tough when quickly seared. More tender than ordinary shoulder, no. 5 is also better cold. Pink beef stays tender even cold; cooked through, it turns grey and firm. Make the lentils the day before, steps 1–3: a night in the vinaigrette improves them, leaving only 5 minutes for the meat on the day. For the office, leave the salad to cool for 15 minutes, refrigerate, transport chilled and eat within 24 hours. In this case, do not reserve the spoonful of vinaigrette in step 3: leave it in the lentils, and transfer the meat in step 4 to an empty container, as overnight contact with vinegar turns the strips grey and removes their pink colour. Salt and pepper the meat, close the container with its juices, and take the containers out 15 minutes before eating so the oil loosens. Put the meat over the salad when eating so it takes up the lentil dressing. The lentils are very good cold. Pack the bread separately. In a pinch, 1 × 400 g tin of lentils (265 g drained) replaces the dried lentils: first cook the carrot in 3 mm dice, covered, for 5 minutes with 3 tbsp water, the bay leaf and garlic; add the rinsed lentils for 2 minutes, then tip them, steaming hot, into the vinaigrette.
Inspired by Parisian bistro lentil salads and beef salads; a lunch version with seared kosher beef.
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