Pickle some pearl onions with the caramel, sticky goodness of Medjool dates, and you’ll have yourself a mouthful of big flavours. Stir through with the nutty and peppery puy lentils to give you a puy lentil salad worth coming back for.
In a medium saucepan, add the peeled onions, chopped dates, 2 bay leaves, 1 ½ cup of water, ½ cup of white wine vinegar, 2 tbsp olive oil, 2 tbsp caster sugar and 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce. Bring it to a boil and then simmer with the lid off for 45 minutes. Remove the onions from the saucepan and set aside. Remove the bay leaves and discard. Leave the dates and reduced liquid in the saucepan.
In a small saucepan, bring 3 cups of water to a boil. Add ¾ cup puy lentils and bring down to a simmer with the lid off for about 20-25 minutes. Drain and set aside.
Roughly chop the flat leaf parsley to yield ½ cup.
Roughly chop the chervil to yield ¼ cup. Pick some additional leaves for garnish.
Assembly
In a medium mixing bowl, add the puy lentils, chopped herbs, 1 tsp of olive oil and juice of ¼ lemon.
Take all the reduced liquid and dates out of the saucepan of onions and add to this mixing bowl.
Season with salt and pepper and mix thoroughly.
Place this puy lentil salad onto a platter.
Add the onions on top.
Season with pepper and add some chervil leaves for garnish.
Serve.
Notes
You can use any lentils of your choice for this salad. The closest variety to the puy lentil is the green lentil.
You can use different types of dates if you wish. With so many to select from, you’re spoilt for choice.
The best chervil substitute is tarragon, or you can just increase the amount of flat leaf parsley in the recipe.
If you don’t have dried bay leaves, you can substitute with dried oregano or dried thyme. About ¼ tsp will suffice.