Lentil salad with oil and vinegar

I've started making this cold (or room temperature) lentil salad. My wife who isn't much of a lentil fan, likes this. When I made this a week ago, I skipped the mirepoix and just used water. It worked very well. I also prefer french lentils which have a slightly earthier taste and remain firmer than other green or brown lentils. Don't use dahl lentils as I think these will be too mushy.

(Optional) Mirepoix of onions, carrots and celery with olive oil.
2 cups french lentils, rinsed and sorted.
5 cups of liquid, water is fine, or a broth.
Extra virgin olive oil
Vinegar, preferably white or red/white wine or even cider
Salt and pepper

Rinse the lentils and remove anything you don't want to eat, like sand.
Finely chop the mirepoix and fry it in olive oil over med-high heat until mostly soft. Add the lentils and the liquid. Simmer until cooked, but not mushy, about 45 minutes (?) for french lentils and 35 minutes (?) less for other lentils. There should not be much water left. If there is excess liquid, ladle most of it away.

Mix or shake or wisk olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper to taste. Stir into the lentils while they are still warm. Taste. I use slightly more oil than vinegar, but it is easy to add more of either to the lentils to suit your preference.

Optionally dress this up with cherry tomatoes and/or some goat cheese. Also, I think green olives might go well with this too, but I haven't tried this.

Simple ways to add some zing

I've tried these ideas out over the past several months. All are super simple but really spice up things.

A chimichurri (dipping sauce) for steak

I wanted to provide something interesting, deeply flavorful and spicy for guests. And it had to be quick. This worked like a champ.

Chopped olives (kalamata, green, or whatever you have)
Chopped jalapenos en escabeche (pickled jalapenos w/ onions, carrots)
Extra virgin olive oil as desired

Mix.

I used roughly equal parts olives and jalapenos, but adjust freely.
The jalapenos can be found in the mexican section of most stores now and a little goes a long way.

Zingy corned beef

Before cooking the vegetables add one or two (or more!) whole jalapenos en escabeche to the corned beef cooking water. I added two peppers before cooking the cabbage and it was noticeably spicy in a nice way. My wife almost found it too spicy.

Note that the corned beef and the potatoes won't pick up too much of this flavor. Also new red potatoes are ideal for corned beef. Much better than russets or yellow potatoes, in my opinion.

A broccoli marinade

2 parts soy sauce (Our aged La Choy bottle was a bit thick which was perfect)
2 parts olive oil
1 part rice vinegar (or some slightly sweet acidic vinegar, but not balsamic)

Mix. Drizzle or brush onto steamed broccoli.