Black Beluga Lentil Salad

(Loosely based on the packaged lentil salad they sell at Peet's.)

1 cup black beluga lentils
4 cups water
1 small shallot, diced
~1 tbs chopped parsley
1 carrot, grated fine
~2 oz feta cheese
half a lemon's worth of juice
red wine vinegar to taste
olive oil to taste/preference
salt to taste
pepper

Put lentils and water in a pot, bring to a faint boil, turn down to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes. Add chopped shallots and cook for 10 more minutes, til cooked but still firm. (You can also just add the shallots after cooking, but raw onion is a bit sharp for me.)
Drain. I did not rinse.

Put into bowl. Add remaining ingredients (Some recipes say to let the lentils cool first but I did this while still warm.) Stir, eat.

Half of this recipe (which feels about like a portion if it's all you're eating) contains ~370 cal 6g fat, 29g protein, 51g carbohydrate and 20g fiber.I did not include olive oil in this so probably slightly more fat.  Going forward I'd be inclined to use more olive oil to make it a bit more balanced/less carbohydrate-dense, though I didn't measure how much olive oil I used, so...

Dal Makhani / Madras Lentils

I want to try my hand at Dal Makhani--I really like Trader Joe's Madras Lentils which seem to be a version of it. I have no idea if the TJ's stuff is authentic or not, but it's tasty. And I have some black lentils sitting around that I want to use up.

The TJ's stuff contains tomatoes, lentils (pretty sure they are black lentils--they are unlike any red or green or brown lentil I've used), kidney beans, onion, cream, salt, butter, oil, ginger, red chiles, and cumin.

I'm going to play around with this recipe (but without a pressure cooker since I don't have one.) Kasoori methi seems to be fenugreek, but I think I'll leave it out the first time.