Choosing the right lentil

When you go to the store to buy lentils. if you are going to
make soup, then the orange or red lentils are fine but don't choose
them for salad as are tricky to cook and disintegrate easily.
For a salad like I did you want to choose the green lentils , or Black (Beluga)
are the best and most flavorful, but the brown lentils will work well also.

Avoid Blowouts

One of the important things about making Lentil salad is that you don't want to overcook the lentils and mush them. Reading in the Cook's Illustrated magazine, they recommend that first you soak them in water with salt for an hour, and the salt helps to flex the skin which helps decrease blowouts. Also they recommend not to pummel each other in a rolling boil but bake them instead.
I found that you can accomplish the same by just bringing the water to a boil in a pan, add the lentils and cover for 40 to 60 minutes.