Smoked Lentil Salad with Sriracha Miso Mayonnaise

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The ingredients are basic, but the final product is anything but: onion and garlic powder, chopped celery, onion, carrots, cucumber, and tomato, crushed garlic, lentils, cumin, miso, mayonnaise, sriracha, and wood chips.

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Merrill pours the rinsed lentils into a pot.

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Onion, powder, garlic powder, and cumin scent the lentils as they soak.

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A twenty-minute soak is all these lentils need before cooking.

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Celery, carrots, garlic, and just-translucent onions form the flavor pedestal on which the salad will sit.

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Those cumin-scented soaked lentils get drained and added to the pot of sauteed vegetables.

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Spread on baking sheets to cool, this salad already looks good enough to eat.

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Soaking wood chips before use keeps them from burning during the smoking process. (The tree that overhangs Amanda's deck is molting, hence that little green seed.)

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Wrap the soaked wood chips in heavy-duty foil, then pierce the packet so the aromatic smoke can get out.

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Smoking the lentils is a genius trick -- we couldn't stop smelling them when they came out of the grill.

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Back in the kitchen, Merill mixes together the dressing. First up: sriracha.

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Miso joins the party next, sweet and salty and funky.

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And mayonnaise brings it all together into a spreadable, complex sauce.

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Scrape the smoked and unsmoked cooled lentils into a bowl -- it's almost time to eat.

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NBrush recommends adding the dressing in stages so you can taste as you go.

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We used barely half of the mayonnaise mixture, but your mileage may vary.

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The cucumber and tomato add crunch and brightness to the smoky, spicy salad.

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Picnics, lunches, dinners: here's your go-to salad.