This week's French Fridays with Dorie recipe is Lentil, Lemon, and Tuna Salad (p. 140), featuring lentils du Puy, preserved lemon, and a can of chunk light tuna packed in oil. The warm lentils are tossed in a vinaigrette of olive oil, red wine vinegar and black olive tapenade. Options include serving the salad chilled or at room temperature, on a bed of greens or plain, and garnished with halved grape tomatoes or a tomato and bell pepper salad.
I had a can of tuna in my basket, but as I rounded the corner to the fish counter and saw fresh albacore, the can went back on the shelf. Seared albacore is one of my sushi bar staples and I knew it would dress up this salad nicely. I tossed in a few handfuls of baby arugula which wilted ever so slightly from the warm lentils, and garnished with a few ripe tomatoes off our sole tomato plant. I didn't have preserved lemon, but I used a little lemon zest in the vinaigrette and a squeeze of juice over the albacore. You can make the tapenade fairly easily, but I went with store-bought.
This is an easy and healthy lunch or dinner salad, and one that I will definitely make again.
French Fridays with Dorie is an online cooking group, dedicated to Dorie Greenspan‘s book Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours. As members of the group, we have purchased the cookbook and cook along as much as we can. There is a new recipe each week, and we post about that recipe on Friday. We are asked to refrain from posting the actual recipes on our blog. The book is filled with stunning photography, and personal stories about each recipe, which makes it that much more intriguing. I highly recommend adding it to your cookbook collection if you haven't already!
*Full Disclosure: I am a member of Amazon Affiliates and receive an extremely small commission if you link to Amazon from There's a Newf in My Soup and purchase this fabulous cookbook.
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| Quality time with Dooley |
This is just beautiful and it is exactly as I would want to eat this salad. If I could only get up off my b-tt and find the time to made it. :) Yum.
ReplyDeleteVery lovely - love the approach of using the seared fresh tuna on top.
ReplyDeleteWow, you went through quite the effort! :) Yours looks great, Mine looked rather un-appetizing and it wasn't too tasty, although my one-year-old loved it! :)
ReplyDeleteWow...you went the extra mile for an even better salad. Beautifully done and Dooley is always fun to see.
ReplyDeleteThe seared albacore was a lovely choice - makes me want to go and pick some up tomorrow to serve with the leftovers!
ReplyDeleteI love the seared ahi idea!! Yum.
ReplyDeleteNow your seared tuna would have definitely made this dish more interesting... bravo.
ReplyDeleteYum! Those pieces of tuna look so divine! I really want some sushi now!
ReplyDeleteThat's a nice touch, Denise, seared tuna with that lovely pink middle! Puts my can of tuna in olive oil to shame. I also added the tomatoes and red peppers - puts a little color on the plate. The lentils are dowdy. I used lemon zest and capers instead of preserved lemons which I did not have. Still lovin' Dooley. What a beautiful doggie.
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