A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Created by
A cold lentil salad from the comida corrida kitchens of Ciudad de Mexico, sharpened with white vinegar and lime, dressed in chile serrano, raw onion, tomato, and cilantro. Honest weekday food.
This is a chilanga salad. From the comida corrida kitchens of Ciudad de Mexico, where every fonda from Colonia Roma to Iztapalapa sets out a row of cold salads on the counter to start the four-course set menu. Lentils, nopales, ejotes, beets with orange. The lentil one is the workhorse. It feeds the family on Monday, fills the lonchera on Tuesday, sits on the table Wednesday next to whatever guisado came out of the cazuela.
The ingredients are humble and the technique is exact. Lentejas pardinas, the small brown lentils sold by the kilo in every mercado. White onion, never red. Jitomate guaje, seeded so the salad does not water out. Chile serrano with the seeds in. Cilantro, generous. The dressing is vinagre blanco and lime, not a vinaigrette in any European sense. The vinegar is sharp and bright and that is the point. Esto no es comida de un solo Mexico, but this one is chilanga to the bone.
My mother kept a Tupperware of this in the refrigerator most weeks of my childhood in Colonia Roma. She salted the lentils at the end, never at the beginning, and she always seeded the tomato. Two small disciplines that separate a lentil salad you want to eat from one that turns to mush by Wednesday. La cocina no es decoracion, es trabajo. Even a weekday salad has rules.
Lentils arrived in Mexico with the Spanish in the 16th century and were absorbed into the criollo and mestizo kitchens of the central highlands as a Lenten and everyday legume, eaten in stews like lentejas con platano and in the cold salads that anchor the comida corrida tradition. The comida corrida format itself, a fixed-price multi-course midday meal centered on home-style guisados, codified in Mexico City's working-class fondas during the early 20th century and became the daily structure through which dishes like ensalada de lentejas reached urban tables. The chilango preference for vinagre blanco over more expensive wine vinegars reflects the practical economy of the fonda kitchen, where bright acid was needed cheaply and consistently to balance the rotating cast of stews and rice that completed the menu.
Quantity
2 cups
picked over and rinsed
Quantity
6 cups
Quantity
1/2 medium
left whole
Quantity
1/2 medium
finely diced
Quantity
3
lightly smashed
Quantity
2
Quantity
1 tablespoon, plus more to taste
Quantity
2 medium
seeded and diced small
Quantity
2
stemmed and finely minced (seeds and ribs included)
Quantity
1/2 cup
chopped
Quantity
3 tablespoons
Quantity
3 tablespoons
Quantity
juice of 2
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
crumbled between your palms
Quantity
to taste
Quantity
for serving
Quantity
for serving
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| dried brown lentils (lentejas pardinas)picked over and rinsed | 2 cups |
| cold water | 6 cups |
| white onion (for the pot)left whole | 1/2 medium |
| white onion (for the salad)finely diced | 1/2 medium |
| garlic cloveslightly smashed | 3 |
| bay leaves | 2 |
| kosher salt | 1 tablespoon, plus more to taste |
| ripe tomatoes (jitomate guaje or roma)seeded and diced small | 2 medium |
| fresh chile serranostemmed and finely minced (seeds and ribs included) | 2 |
| fresh cilantro leaves and tender stemschopped | 1/2 cup |
| white vinegar (vinagre blanco) | 3 tablespoons |
| extra virgin olive oil | 3 tablespoons |
| Mexican limes | juice of 2 |
| dried Mexican oreganocrumbled between your palms | 1/2 teaspoon |
| freshly ground black pepper | to taste |
| sliced radishes (optional) | for serving |
| sliced avocado (optional) | for serving |
Spread the dry lentils on a sheet pan and run your fingers through them. You are looking for small pebbles, dirt clumps, and any shriveled lentil that did not make it. Bagged lentils almost always carry a stone or two and one stone will crack a tooth. The señoras at La Merced taught me this and I have never skipped it since. Rinse the lentils under cold water in a sieve until the water runs clear.
Place the rinsed lentils in a medium pot with the cold water, the whole half onion, the smashed garlic, and the bay leaves. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat. Do not salt the water yet. Salt added too early toughens the skins and the lentils never soften correctly. Skim any foam that rises in the first five minutes.
Lower the heat and simmer uncovered for 20 to 25 minutes. You are looking for tender lentils that still hold their shape. Bite one. It should give without resistance but stay round on the plate. A blown-out lentil is a sad lentil. Add the salt in the last five minutes of cooking and stir gently. Drain in a colander and discard the onion, garlic, and bay leaves.
Spread the drained lentils on a sheet pan in a single layer and let them cool to room temperature, about 15 minutes. Do not run them under cold water. Cold water washes off the starch that helps the dressing cling. Do not throw them straight into the bowl while still hot either. Hot lentils wilt the onion and bruise the cilantro.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the white vinegar, olive oil, lime juice, dried oregano crumbled between your palms, a generous pinch of salt, and several grinds of black pepper. Whisk with a fork until it comes together. Vinagre blanco is the chilango touch. It cuts through the lentil with a sharpness olive oil alone cannot deliver. No me vengas con atajos like apple cider or balsamic. This is a comida corrida salad, not a bistro plate.
Add the cooled lentils to the bowl with the dressing. Fold gently with a spatula. Then add the diced white onion, the seeded tomatoes, the minced serranos, and the chopped cilantro. Fold once more, just until everything is married. Taste for salt and acid. Lentils swallow seasoning, so it almost always needs more salt than you think. Let the salad sit at room temperature for 15 minutes before serving so the flavors settle.
Spoon onto plates or into a shared serving bowl. Lay sliced radishes and avocado on top if using. Serve at cool room temperature or lightly chilled. If you have made it ahead and refrigerated it, pull it out 20 minutes before eating. Cold dulls the chile and the vinegar. Así se hace y punto.
1 serving (about 310g)
Culinary guides, cultural storytelling, and the editorial depth that makes cooking meaningful.
Discover Culinary Explorer
Chef Lupita
A raw quelites salad from the milpas of Puebla and the Valle de Mexico, peppery watercress and succulent purslane over romaine, dressed in a sharp mustard vinaigrette with radish, serrano, and cubes of queso panela.
Chef Lupita
The crunchy pickled cabbage that lives next to the pozole pot and on top of the tostada. Shredded cabbage, carrot, and thin-sliced jalapeño cured in white vinegar with Mexican oregano. A few hours of patience, weeks of payoff.
Chef Lupita
The weeknight and Lenten ensalada de central Mexican kitchens, flaked tuna folded with corn, carrot, peas, pickled jalapeño, and just enough mayonnaise to bind. Cold, bright, and ready in half an hour.
Chef Lupita
The everyday composed plate of the central highlands: cooked beet, crisp jicama, and orange segments with grated carrot, dressed only in lime, salt, and chile piquin. Recetas probadas y garantizadas, and the kind of plate that puts color on a weeknight table without asking for much.