Lentils with sun-dried tomatoes, cheese and herbs

Time to make the most of the pressure cooker today! Miriam, author of El Invitado de Invierno, shows us how to make an easy, tasty lentil salad in no time. You'll love this pressure-cooker lentil recipe!

These lentils with sun-dried tomato, cheese, and herbs are for vegetarians—a very complete dish with legumes, healthy, balanced, and blah blah blah… all that stuff they tell us to sell us on vegetables. But it's really delicious; give it a try, you won't regret it.

The recipe is taken from El Gourmet Vegetariano, a cookbook by the famous chef Yotam Ottolenghi, who knows how to cook vegetables and legumes like no one else, with mixes of herbs and spices that turn any boring dish into an explosion of flavors. Oops, how corny I got.

The lentils I've used are beluga lentils, named because once cooked they (vaguely) resemble caviar due to their very dark color.

WMF Perfect Pressure Cooker, Pallarès carbon steel knife, book El gourmet vegetariano, Triana glass plate by Mediterránea and Mediterránea glass tumbler.

Ingredients

• 400gr of plum tomatoes
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 2 tbsp. good-quality balsamic vinegar
• 1 red onion
• 1 tbsp. sherry vinegar
• 1 tsp. flaky salt
• 250gr small lentils (Puy, beluga, pardina)
• Olive oil to taste
• Garlic salt or 1 crushed garlic clove
• Salt to taste
• Fresh dill and chives
• Spanish blue cheese (Tresviso, Peral)

Method

1. We start by drying the tomatoes in the oven. We cut them into quarters, place them cut side up on a baking sheet, drizzle with the oil and vinegar, and roast in the oven at 130° for at least an hour and a half, until they are firm but not completely dried out. Set aside.
2. In the pressure cooker we put the lentils well covered with water, respecting the pot's maximum levels. Heat with the cooker open until the water boils, close, lock the lid, and let the pressure rise until the two orange rings pop up. Then count 15 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, slice the onion thinly and put it in a bowl with the sherry vinegar and salt to marinate and soften, about 20 minutes.
4. Once the lentils' cooking time is up, turn off the heat and wait for the cooker to lose pressure completely before opening it.
5. Drain the lentils well from their cooking liquid and transfer them to a salad bowl.
6. Add the marinated onion, the oven-dried tomatoes cut into small pieces with their juices, the chopped dill and chives, the garlic, olive oil, and salt. Stir to combine the flavors.
7. When serving, sprinkle with crumbled blue cheese.

Book El gourmet vegetariano, Triana glass plate by Mediterránea, WMF Perfect pressure cooker, Emile Henry ramekin and Pallarès carbon steel knife.

If blue cheese is too strong for you, as happens to a few specimens in my house, you can skip it because the warm salad is still excellent. Enjoy.