Tomato, Zucchini, and Lentil Salad with Basil-Sunflower Pesto
Roasted zucchini and burst tomatoes folded through lentils with a cheeseless basil-sunflower pesto that stays sharp and green. The arugula goes in at the very last second.
The parts that change whether this works tonight.
- Serves
- 4
- Time
- 40 minutes
- Equipment
- A food processor or a blender with a tamper, one large sheet pan, and a wide shallow bowl so the arugula gets folded rather…
- Dietary
- Vegetarian
- The method
- 11 ingredients · 5 steps
From this recipe’s own yield and timing lines, Kitchen Kit and tags. Nothing here is a guess.
Pairing
Wine — A chilled Cabernet Franc from the Loire, or a dry rosé. Tomato is acidic enough to make most reds taste sour; Cabernet Franc has the herbal green note that makes it work instead. Mixed drink — Campari and soda with a basil leaf. The bitterness handles the lentils and the basil ties the glass to the pesto. Teetotaler — A basil and lemon soda, unsweetened. The pesto is already the loudest thing in the bowl, so the glass should agree with it rather than introduce anything new.
Tools
A food processor or a blender with a tamper, one large sheet pan, and a wide shallow bowl so the arugula gets folded rather than crushed
Ingredients · swaps in parentheses
Green lentils (black beluga, French green), zucchini, cherry tomatoes, olive oil, arugula (watercress), basil, sunflower seeds (pepitas, walnuts), garlic, lemon, salt, black pepper
Magic
Do not loosen the pesto with water. When the tomatoes burst they leave two or three tablespoons of dark, salty, half-roasted juice pooled on the sheet pan, and that liquid goes down the drain in most kitchens. Tilt the pan into a corner, spoon it into the processor, and let the pesto down with that instead. It thins the sauce exactly as water would while carrying roasted tomato and the seasoned oil back into it, so the dressing tastes like the pan the vegetables came off rather than like a separate green thing poured on top. Not feeling brave? Use one spoonful of pan juice and cold water for the rest.
Gotcha
Tomatoes throw off a surprising amount of liquid, and zucchini sitting in it will steam instead of roast. Keep them to separate halves of the pan with a gap between, or use two pans. Gray, floppy zucchini is not a seasoning problem you can fix later.
Leaving the cheese out of a pesto is usually framed as a dietary accommodation and it is actually a flavor decision. Parmesan brings salt and a savory weight that flattens basil slightly; without it, the basil reads greener and sharper, and the lemon has more room. Sunflower seeds do what pine nuts do at a fifth of the price, with a nuttier and less resinous finish. The result is thinner, brighter, and more useful as a dressing than as a spread, which is exactly what a salad wants.
Serves: 4 Time: 40 minutes
Ingredients
- 2 cups cooked green lentils
- 2 zucchini, cut into half-moons
- 2 cups cherry tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 3 cups arugula
- 1 cup basil leaves
- 1/3 cup toasted sunflower seeds
- 1 small garlic clove
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- Salt and pepper
Method
- Cook the lentils short of soft. If you are starting from dry, simmer them in well-salted water until they have a distinct bite, then drain immediately and spread them on a plate to stop the cooking.
- Roast the vegetables with space between them. Toss the zucchini and tomatoes with 1 tablespoon olive oil, salt, and pepper. Spread them on a sheet pan, keeping the zucchini on one side and the tomatoes on the other, and roast at 425°F for 22 minutes. The tomatoes should burst and the zucchini should have brown edges.
- Blend the pesto. Basil, sunflower seeds, garlic, lemon juice, 2 tablespoons olive oil, and a good pinch of salt. Run it until it is coarse rather than smooth, then loosen with cold water a tablespoon at a time until it pours slowly off a spoon. For the magic version, tilt the sheet pan and use the burst-tomato juices in place of the water here.
- Dress the lentils while the vegetables are warm. Combine the lentils and the roasted vegetables in a wide bowl and add half the pesto. Warm ingredients absorb dressing; cold ones just wear it.
- Fold in the arugula last. Add it at the very end with the remaining pesto to taste. Two or three folds, no more. Serve at room temperature.
Which lentil, and why not the red ones
Green lentils and French green lentils hold their shape through a toss. Black beluga lentils hold even better and look striking against the tomatoes. Red and yellow lentils dissolve into a puree, which is wonderful in soup and catastrophic here. If the bag does not say, look at the lentil itself: if the seed coat is intact and the lentil is round rather than split, it will hold.
Salt the cooking water like pasta water. Lentils cooked in plain water and salted afterward taste hollow no matter how good the dressing is, because the salt never gets past the skin. Age matters too. Lentils that have sat in a cupboard for two years cook unevenly, with some blown open and others still hard, and there is no technique that rescues a bad bag.
Keeping the pesto green
Basil browns on contact with a hot blade and with air. Two things help: work fast, and make sure the lemon juice goes in with the leaves rather than after, since the acid slows the enzyme responsible for the browning. A short blanch of the basil leaves for ten seconds followed by an ice bath will keep it emerald for days if you are making it ahead, at the cost of a little aromatic sharpness.
Toast the sunflower seeds until they smell like popcorn, not until they are dark. They go from nutty to acrid quickly and there is no bitterness quite like burnt seed bitterness distributed evenly through a sauce. Cool them fully before blending or the residual heat will cook the basil in the processor bowl.
Serving, holding, and what to do with the extra pesto
Dressed, without the arugula, this holds in the refrigerator for two days and gets better on day one as the lentils absorb the pesto. Add the greens at the moment of serving. Bring it back to room temperature first; cold olive oil goes waxy and mutes everything.
You will have pesto left over, because the recipe makes more than the salad needs on purpose. It keeps a week under a thin film of oil, and it is better on a fried egg than most things are. It also thins into a dressing for cold potatoes with an extra squeeze of lemon, or goes onto grilled bread with a tomato rubbed across it first.
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