Lentil Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette

Name: Lentil Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette
Yield: 4 to 6 servings
Ingredients: 1 cup green lentils or lentils from Puy; 1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste; 1 stalk celery with leaves, cut into 1/2-inch dice; 1 onion, quartered, plus 1/2 onion, diced; 1 clove garlic; 1 bay leaf; 2 teaspoons fresh thyme, or 1 teaspoon dried thyme; 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard; 1 tablespoon red-wine vinegar; 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil; Freshly ground pepper to taste; 1 bunch of fresh parsley, finely chopped

December 9, 2011

Guy Weyl was a little boy during World War II, when his parents fled the Nazis, first hiding in the Dordogne and then crossing the border into Spain when France became too dangerous. They then went to Portugal, and from there took a boat to New York, where they stayed through the rest of the war. The whole time Guy was in the United States, he missed the green lentils from France. During the war, lentils were just beginning to gain popularity in New York as a wartime alternative to meat, but they still were not the delicacy they were in France. So, when Guy returned to France and went to school, he was thrilled to eat lentils again, but his schoolmates laughed at his fondness for them, because that was all they had had to eat during the war. This hasn’t lessened his ardor for the tiny green pulses, and Guy’s wife, Eveline, makes a wonderful lentil salad.

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