It was hot today and so cool easy salads were what I needed. These three are low effort and using not too many ingredients: spicy brown lentils with tomatoes and lemon; potato, green bean, and rocket/arugula salad with honey mustard dressing; and herby mushrooms with sourdough croutons. You can add feta or mozzarella to any of these salads if you want, but they are nice as is with some posh sea salt, cracked pepper, and good olive oil.

Brown lentils: I did these in the instant pot which gave me a bit of sauce, but I’m sure it would be fine with canned brown lentils. Put a cup of brown lentils in the instant pot with 1.75 cups of water, tsp of garlic powder, tsp of onion powder, tbsp of tomato paste, and a bay leaf, and cooked them on high pressure for 11 minutes. Release pressure, stir, add some salt, pepper, and some heat. I added Turkish chilli powder, but it would be fine with Aleppo pepper or no heat. Add the zest and juice of a lemon, a chopped tomato, a handful of chopped cilantro, and 1/3 c of olive oil. Add more seasonings to taste when cool.

Potato, green beans, and rocket salad: Chop new potatoes and green beans to the size you like. Add potatoes to a pot of very salty water and bring to a boil. When potatoes are almost done, add green beans. Drain before your beans go a dull green. To make dressing, add one tbsp of white wine vinegar (or whatever acid you want) to 4 tbsps of olive oil (of whatever oil you want), and whisk in a teaspoon of Dijon or whole grain mustard, salt, pepper, and 1/2 tsp of honey or sugar. Add dressing to potatoes and beans and when it is all cool, toss with rocket/arugula. Serve cold.

Mushroom and sourdough crouton salad: slice and fry mushrooms in a combination of oil and non-dairy/dairy butter with some salt and cook until golden brown. You might have to do this is stages so you don’t crowd the pan and steam the mushrooms rather than fry the mustard. Deglaze with a bit of lemon juice. Put mushrooms in a bowl. Add some more oil and non-dairy/dairy butter in the mushroom pan, and season the oil with garlic powder, onion powder, lemon pepper, and fry cubes of stale sourdough bread in the flavoured oil on medium heat. Just before the bread is done, add the mushrooms and toss it all around in the pan. Take off heat and add some thyme, tarragon, and fresh parsley. Serve at room temperature.