Balsamico-Linsen mit Lachs

The idea is very nice, the execution - just awful! So many details are wrong with this recipe, nearly all of them a question of quantity and proportion.

First of all, the marinade for the salmon consists of 2 tbsp lime juice, 1 tsp honey and 3 (!!) tbsp soy sauce. The salt content of a good brand of soy sauce is about 16-17 g per 100 ml; my generic German supermarket brand contains 21.8 g/100 ml! That's 9.8 g salt in the marinade, or 2.5 g per serving!! I used 1 tbsp, and that was just right, shouldn't have been more.

Then, the lentils: onions, carrots and celery is a nice addition and is, as mirepoix, indeed the foundation for plenty of dishes, but 4 onions, carrots and celery stalks each for a recipe with 4 servings? A bit much. Last, for the 300 g lentils and aforementioned veg you're supposed to make a dressing consisting of 4-5 tbsp balsamic vinegar and 2-3 tbsp honey - I added less than half, and I already thought it was awful, esp. awfully sweet. I threw the lentils out; I might make them again without dressing (or in any case without that dressing), or just plain rice and a veg.

The recipe also calls for parsnip to be cooked with the lentils; I omitted them outright as that didn't really seem to match the elegance of the rest of the recipe. However, River Cottage has a surprisingly similar recipe with puy lentils and parsnips (up to including a honey dressing!).