Summer supper with appeal
This warm main-course salad makes an appealing summer supper, with vegetables bolstered by crisp-fried Spanish sausages.
You can cook the sausages whole on the barbecue, then dice them.
The recipe is from a fine new cookbook called Feast: Recipes and Stories From a Canadian Road Trip (Appetite by Random House, $35), by Lindsay Anderson and Dana Van-Veller, and was obtained from Saskatoon-born Calgary food writer Dan Clapson.
Use olive oil if you can’t get camelina oil — a delicately flavoured variety that comes from an ancient European seed used by Saskatchewan’s Three Farmers collective.
Anderson and Van-Veller dot their lively, well-illustrated collection of more than 110 recipes with many stories of Canadian food discoveries.
The Vancouver friends have written the best Canada-wide cookbook to appear in a long time — a pleasure for readers as well as cooks.
LENTIL, APPLE AND CHORIZO SALAD Serves: 6
1 1/2 cups (375 mL) dried beluga lentils (see note) 1 tbsp (15 mL) camelina oil or olive oil
5 1/2 oz (150 g) cured chorizo sausages, diced 2 tbsp (30 mL) dry white wine
1 tbsp (15 mL) butter
1 tsp (5 mL) lemon zest
(grated peel)
3 tbsp (45 mL) fresh lemon juice
6 medium crabapples or
1 Granny Smith apple, cored, quartered, skin on 1/4 cup (60 mL) finely chopped flat-leaf parsley 1 tbsp (15 mL) Dijon mustard (grainy preferred) 1 tsp (5 mL) salt
1/2 tsp (2.5 mL) freshly
ground pepper
Note: Beluga lentils are as black as caviar, hence their name. They hold their shape better than other lentils. You can substitute green French lentils.
1. Place lentils in a large saucepan, cover with 4 cups (1 L) cold water and bring to a boil over high heat.
2. Reduce heat to medium and boil for 15 to 20 minutes or until tender. Drain and set aside.
3. Heat oil in a large, heavy frying pan over medium-high heat. Add sausages and sauté for 4 to 5 minutes, until edges are slightly crisp. Deglaze pan with wine, then blend in butter.
4. When butter has melted, mix in lemon zest and juice, apples, the cooked lentils, parsley and mustard. Lower heat to medium and cook for 3 minutes to heat through.
5. Mix in the salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm.