Friday, June 1, 2012

FFwD - Lentil, Lemon and Tuna Salad


This week's French Fridays with Dorie recipe is a surprising salad - Lentil, Lemon and Tuna Salad.  It is a mixture of green lentils, tuna, chopped preserved lemon and chopped scallions, dressed with an unlikely combination of olive tapenade, mustard, red wine vinegar and olive oil.  But weirdly, it works - I really enjoyed it.

I was lucky in that I had preserved lemons that I had made from lemons out of my friends', Veronica and Christian, garden.  This is the first time I used them, so that made me happy.  Preserved lemons are absurdly expensive to buy, given how simple they are to make.

I ate this salad warm - it was already 3 in the afternoon, and I had not yet had lunch, so I wasn't going to wait a couple of hours for it to chill (after patiently waiting while the lentils cooked).

To see what everyone else thought of this dish, visit the LYL section of the FFwD website.

16 comments:

Gloria Baker said...

I love lentils and love this salad!

Cher Rockwell said...

I usually preserve Meyer lemons when they were in season - I didn't do that this year & this would have been a perect use for them
Glad you enjoyed the salad - I was surprised too at how well the flavors meshed.

Kari said...

This does come across as a surprising recipe - not an ingredient combination I've ever tried. But on seeing it, I can imagine it working very well indeed.

Finla said...

Here at home we love tuna salade, but i have never made with lentils love the idea and looks delish

Anonymous said...

What luck that you had preserved lemons on hand!

Anonymous said...

LOL :) I'm going to make my own preserved lemons as well! :)

Rose said...

I didn't let mine sit either. I was tempted to set some aside to do a test and see if there would be noticeable difference, but we ended up polishing the half recipe off in one sitting. And I was also rather surprised that this combo worked, but it did!

Kathy said...

Lucky you, having preserved lemons to use! I just used zest! Your salad looks delicious…I really enjoyed this one, too!

Blond Duck said...

This looks delish!

Teresa said...

Nice job - I'm impressed that you had your own preserved lemons on hand. It's on my list of things to try.

Anonymous said...

Your salad looks delicious. I think it would have been better warm! I liked this, don't know if I'm completely convinced that I want the tuna with it, but it was good!

Glad that you enjoyed it (even if you did have to wait!!)

Anonymous said...

Your salad looks delicious. I think it would have been better warm! I liked this, don't know if I'm completely convinced that I want the tuna with it, but it was good!

Glad that you enjoyed it (even if you did have to wait!!)

Liz That Skinny Chick Can Bake said...

I found this to be a strange combo of ingredients, but it sure was tasty!!! Glad you had your own stash of preserved lemons...lucky you!

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella said...

What an interesting looking salad! Although it sounds like the flavours would go really well together (and I would have eaten it warm too :) ).

Ellen B Cookery said...

What an interesting salad! I must try. The combination of ingredients has me curious. I bet it tastes amazing!

Elaine said...

I wasn't feeling good and so I didn't make this last week, but I do want to because i enjoy lentils and tuna. Your salad looks wonderful. It does seem a little strange to me in the same salad, but I am glad to read that it works. How neat that you used your own homemade lemon preserves!