На обед мы сделали салат с фасолью, а вечером сварили чечевицу.

Here На обед means something like for lunch or for the lunch meal.

Russian often uses на + accusative with meals:

• на завтрак = for breakfast
• на обед = for lunch
• на ужин = for dinner

So На обед мы сделали салат с фасолью means For lunch, we made a bean salad.

It is not literally about location. It is an idiomatic way to say what was prepared for a meal.

Yes. In Russian, сделать can be used quite naturally for preparing certain foods, especially simple ones like salads, sandwiches, etc.

So:

• сделать салат = to make a salad

It focuses on the result: the salad got made.

You could also hear:

• приготовили салат = prepared a salad

That is also correct, but сделали салат is very common and sounds natural.

Because the preposition с meaning with normally takes the instrumental case.

So:

• фасоль = beans / bean (dictionary form)
• с фасолью = with beans

This is a very common pattern:

• чай с молоком = tea with milk
• суп с курицей = soup with chicken
• салат с фасолью = salad with beans

So фасолью is instrumental singular.

Фасолью is the instrumental singular of фасоль.

The noun фасоль is feminine and ends in a soft sign -ь in its dictionary form. Many feminine nouns of this type form the instrumental singular in -ью:

• фасоль → фасолью
• дверь → дверью
• ночь → ночью

So here:

• с фасолью = with beans

No. Вечером is a standard Russian adverbial time expression meaning in the evening.

Russian often uses the instrumental case by itself for parts of the day:

• утром = in the morning
• днём = during the day / in the daytime
• вечером = in the evening
• sometimes ночью = at night

So а вечером means and in the evening / but in the evening.

You do not say в вечером.

А often connects two ideas while also showing a contrast, shift, or change of scene.

Here the sentence moves from one time of day to another:

• На обед...
• а вечером...

So а works well because it means something like:

• and then / while / but as for later

It is not a strong contradiction, but there is a clear contrast between for lunch and in the evening.

If you used и, it would sound more like a simple addition. А is more natural here because the speaker is contrasting two meal times.

Сварить means to boil or, more generally with foods like grains, pasta, beans, lentils, eggs, etc., to cook by boiling.

So:

• сварить чечевицу = to cook/boil lentils

This is more specific than a general verb like приготовить (to prepare).

Russian often chooses very specific cooking verbs:

• жарить / пожарить = fry
• печь / испечь = bake
• варить / сварить = boil/cook in water

Since lentils are typically boiled, сварили чечевицу is exactly what you would expect.

Because чечевицу is the accusative singular, used for the direct object of the verb.

The dictionary form is:

• чечевица = lentil / lentils

As a direct object:

• сварили чечевицу = cooked lentils

For feminine nouns ending in -а, the accusative singular usually changes -а to -у:

• каша → кашу
• рыба → рыбу
• чечевица → чечевицу

Russian often omits a subject when it is already clear from context.

Here the first clause has:

• мы сделали

So in the second clause, the subject is understood to be the same:

• а вечером сварили чечевицу

This is completely natural and means:

• and in the evening, we cooked lentils

You could say а вечером мы сварили чечевицу, but it is not necessary. Including мы again would add a little more emphasis.

Both are past tense, plural forms.

They agree with the subject мы = we.

The infinitives are:

• сделать → сделали
• сварить → сварили

In the past tense, Russian verbs change for gender and number, not for person:

• masculine singular: сделал
• feminine singular: сделала
• neuter singular: сделало
• plural: сделали

Since the subject is we, the plural form is used.

They are perfective because the sentence describes completed actions with a result:

• the salad was made
• the lentils were cooked

In this context, the speaker is talking about what they ended up preparing at two different times of day, so perfective aspect is very natural.

Compare:

• делали салат = were making / used to make a salad

• сделали салат = made a salad, finished it

• варили чечевицу = were cooking/boiling lentils
• сварили чечевицу = cooked/boiled the lentils, finished cooking them

So the perfective forms highlight completed meal preparation.

The word order is natural, but Russian word order is fairly flexible.

The given sentence:

• На обед мы сделали салат с фасолью, а вечером сварили чечевицу.

puts the time expressions first:

• На обед
• вечером

This helps organize the sentence around when each thing happened.

You could also say:

• Мы на обед сделали салат с фасолью, а вечером сварили чечевицу.

That is also correct.

The original version sounds especially natural because it sets up the meal-time frame right away:

• For lunch...
• and in the evening...

In this sentence, чечевица refers to lentils as a food substance, so in English it is usually translated as lentils, not a lentil.

Russian singular nouns are often used for mass or food items where English prefers a plural or an uncountable expression.

So:

• сварили чечевицу = cooked lentils

It does not mean they cooked just one single lentil.