Skip to main content
Main

Lentil Vegetable Salad

A salad of cooked lentils mixed with sautéed vegetables and vinaigrette.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 15 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 2,225 recipes mention both. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

The recipe

Time30 minutes

Ingredients

Contains: wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Also mentioned in the method: bread

Directions

Cook the lentils

  1. Rinse lentils and place them in a saucepan with broth, bay leaf, marjoram, and thyme.

  2. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes or until tender.

  3. Drain the lentils in a colander.

Make the salad

  1. Heat oil in a non-stick saucepan and stir-fry the vegetables for 3 minutes.

  2. Add the lentils, hot pepper flakes, water chestnuts, and vinaigrette.

  3. Serve on a bed of lettuce leaves.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together10,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Marjoram + carrottop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Marjoram + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Thyme + carrottop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Red lentil
Provides the main body and protein-rich structure of the salad as they cook until tender.
Balsamic vinaigrette
Adds acidity and sweetness that moisten and flavour the lentils and vegetables.
Water chestnuts
Add a crisp, juicy texture that contrasts with the soft lentils.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and a firm, crunchy texture when stir-fried briefly.

The step that matters

Drain the lentils well before adding them to the pan. Excess cooking liquid left on the lentils would dilute the vinaigrette and steam the vegetables instead of letting them sear lightly in the hot oil, softening the salad's texture.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, marjoram, thyme, olive, carrot, celery, pepper):

  1. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  2. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  3. Potatobetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, marjoram, thyme, olive, carrot, celery, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Illustration of Chicken BrothIllustrationChicken Broth257 recipesIllustration of Chicken SoupIllustrationChicken Soup156 recipesIllustration of Carrot SoupIllustrationCarrot Soup134 recipesIllustration of Cream of Celery SoupIllustrationCream of Celery Soup113 recipes