Warm Lentil & Goat Cheese Salad

I've had this recipe bookmarked for months. It's from Laura Werlin's Cheese Essentials, a book I found in the breakroom at work and borrowed for enhancing my study of all things cheese. I'm a big fan of warm lentil salads with goat cheese since trying something like this in one of the 18 Reasons cooking classes I took a while back focusing on the beauty of budget friendly meals revolving around lentils.

I made a few tweaks to the original recipe.  I prepared the salad while the lentils were still warm whereas the original recipe instructs for the lentils to be cooled to room temperature. I find the warm lentils absorb the flavors of the dressing and allow the cheese to soften a bit and adding a little creaminess to the salad. The other adjustment I made was to chop and crumble the goat cheese then stir it into the warm salad. The original recipe places a one ounce wedge of cheese onto the side of the plated salad. That makes for a lovely presentation when using a striking looking cheese like Humboldt Fog and if serving this salad to guests.

I'm much more pedestrian and make a big bowl of this all for myself so I can enjoy it for a few days. Humboldt Fog is a lovely lightly aged goat's milk cheese from Cypress Grove in Humboldt County here in California. It has a vegetable ash layer running through the middle and beneath the white bloomy surface. It ripens from the surface where it's soft and oozy. The center is firm and crumbly. One of the things I love about good goat cheese is that it changes as it ages. There's more complexity to aged goat cheeses like Humboldt Fog that develop a bloomy (the white fuzzy) rind. The crumbly center is mild and tangy, the oozy edge introduces a bit of goaty personality and the bloomy rind is a little bitter. I love the combination of all of these textures. This salad would be just fine using a more commercial log style goat cheese if you're going the pedestrian route.

Warm Lentil and Goat Cheese Salad

adapted from Laura Werlin’s Cheese Essentials

For the lentils:

1 cup dried lentils

1 large garlic clove, peeled

For the dressing:

2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons red wine vinegar

2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

1 ½ teaspoons mustard

2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill plus whole sprigs for garnish

¼ teaspoon kosher salt

Freshly ground pepper

3 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

For the salad:

4 scallions, finely chopped

1 medium carrot, peeled and cut into 1/8 inch dice

1 large celery stalk cut into 1/8 inch dice

About 1 cup peeled, finely diced English cucumber

8 ounces Humboldt Fog goat cheese

To prepare the lentils: Fill a 2 quart sauce pan about half way with water. Add the lentils and garlic. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook the lentils until tender but not mushy. After 15 minutes taste to determine doneness and keep checking every 5 minutes until they reach the desired consistency. Drain well and toss into a large bowl.

Combine the dressing ingredients into a jam jar and shake until emulsified. Toss into the bowl of warm lentils.

For the leftovers: you can eat this cold from the fridge but I like to pop it in the microwave for 30 seconds to get the chill off.

Vegetable pot stickers

Vegetable pot stickers, originally uploaded by riptideredsf.

This was a first for the little kitchen: Pot stickahzzz!  I spent the entire afternoon making pot stickers.  Why? when my favorite Asian market, New May Wah sells a ginormous bag of 'em for something ridiculous, like 8.99, and Trader Joes are pretty darned good too. I loves to have them in freezer for those nights when I'm just too worn out to make anything and too broke to go out. Pull the bag out of the freezer and toss a handful into hot skillet with some peanut oil and 10 minutes later( providing you've got some left-over rice in the fridge) , dinner is served.

Is it worth the labor involved you may ask? Yes and no. If they taste brilliant then hell yah! This first attempt is not quite there yet but has potential and I'm seeing the dumpling assembly as theraputic, along the lines of garbanzo bean peeling.
I've had this recipe from 101 Cookbooks for Golden Potstickers, a vegetable pot sticker starring yellow lentils, on my to do list for months (prompted by a pantry purge of all the jars of lentils I had decorating my shelf). I used red lentils  and a bunch of excess cabbage I'd shredded up for a slaw that was juuusst about to find its way into the compost bin-thus another refrigerator rescue was born!
Make the lentil pot stickers and the dipping sauce just the way Heidi explains it and they'll be wonderful. But, if you're me and your fridge is always on spoil alert, this lentil base is a great host for a sauteed veggie mash-up. The lentils are cooked and then pulsed in the food processor. The texture is up to you.  If you have a lot of veg to add just make sure it's diced small and perhaps you'll need an extra package of wrappers lest your bowl of filling gets a little whack once you add the vegetables. These freeze perfectly so make as many as you can handle.

The cabbage (or any veg or green that needs to find a greater purpose) goes into a hot skillet with 1-2 tablespoons of peanut oil (I'd gauge it thusly: 1 tablespoon for every 2 cups of veg) , red pepper flakes, chinese 5 spice ( 1 teaspoon for every 2 cups of veg)  and salt (to taste~taste often). Toss the pan to get the cabbage coated and when it's almost soft, (and this is totally optional) dash in some Sriracha, taste it and dash some more if you want...and then  fold the sauteed vegetables into the lentil mix.
Smitten Kitchen just posted a Spring Vegetable Pot Sticker recipe that is definitely going on my to do list.  In addition to the great recipe, she's got some great process pics for folding technique.
Un-wrap the won-ton/pot sticker wrappers and place them into an airtight container or get a damp tea towel to cover the package while you work. I use two spoons to form the filling and have a small bowl of water the moisten the edges of the wrappers. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or wax paper to place your formed pot stickers on. Sit down at your kitchen table or your coffee table and pop in a French Chef DVD and commence to wrapping. Keep a damp towel over the formed pot-stickers as you work and make sure they aren't touching. When the baking sheet is full put it in the freezer (without the towel) for about an hour. Transfer them into a freezer bag and draw out as much air as you can. Keep the bag in the freezer and when your ready to cook some off, have a half cup of cold water standing by.
Heat up a non-stick skillet (make sure it has a lid to fit) on medium heat with a tablespoon of peanut oil and when the oil starts to shimmer, place the pot stickers flat side down and cook until the bottom just starts to brown. with the lid in one hand pour in the water and place the lid on the pan firmly and cook until the water has reduced by half (about 7 minutes). Remove the lid and continue cooking until the water has evaporated and the bottoms are browned (about more 3 minutes).