Green Lentil, Carrot and Walnut Salad

Auchentoshan 3 Wood's spicy, nutty background brings out all the flavours in this crunchy, nutty salad.

This salad always reminds me of our holidays in the Languedoc in France. We have adapted it here with a whiskied walnut vinaigrette. It is a salad but it is quite filling and there’s no lettuce... It is crunchy, fresh tasting, extremely healthy and I think best served cold.

Serves 4

225g green lentils, cooked and drained
2 carrots, peeled and very finely diced
50g walnuts, fairly finely chopped
2 plump garlic cloves, crushed
8 spring onions, trimmed and finely chopped
2 tomatoes skinned and de seeded, then chopped into fine dice
4 hard boiled eggs
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Vinaigrette
Auchentoshan 3 Wood Malt Whisky
20mls red wine vinegar
75mls walnut oil
2 teaspoons salt
freshly ground black pepper
pinch of sugar to taste

Garnish
2 tablespoonfuls of fresh chopped flat leaf parsley

Put the lentils into a large bowl with the carrots, walnuts, garlic, spring onions, tomato dice and vinaigrette. Mix well, season with salt and pepper and leave to marinate for several hours.

To serve
This recipe can be served as a starter or a main course. As a starter this recipe serves 6-8. Just sprinkle with fresh parsley and decorate with wedges of boiled egg. For a casual lunch for 4 people, spoon all the salad heaped up into a lovely bowl and refrigerate until you are ready to serve. Then sprinkle the parsley on top and surround the salad with the hard boiled eggs, shelled and cut into wedges and invite your guests to help themselves.