When I asked on Instagram what kind of recipes you would like to see on salad week, one of the ones you guys asked more for was one with pulses. My favourite one is definitely lentil salad. I love it because you don’t need chicken or any other animal protein to complement it; lentils really fill you up nicely. The dressing is heavy on the mustard and lemon because both go sooo good with lentils 🙂
Every time I think about eating lentils I inevitably think about tomatoes. In my mom’s house, she used to serve them with tomato salad always. It’s perfect because it lightens them up! That’s why tomato couldn’t be absent from this recipe. I also used kale which I love! It has a tougher leaf than lettuce which makes it better for storing in containers to take to your workplace or school. If you prefer you can also use spinach or skip the kale altogether.
IF you want to see more salad ideas you can check out my salads section. Also, here’s a post with 10 salad dressings in case you are bored of always using the same one :). The idea is that you’ll get inspired by these recipes. Make them at home and adapt them to whatever ingredient you have available, or use them to switch up you everyday salads.
You can make this same lentil salad with other pulses like chickpeas, beans and several types of lentils as well. Just be mindful that lentils are the only ones that only require 1 hour of soaking. The others need the soaking to happen overnight and some of them also need peeling. On that side of things, lentils are definitely more practical. As a matter of fact, lentils don’t NEED to be soaked before cooking but it does help in their digestion.
Ingredients
For the salad
- 100 g lentils +500ml water for cooking
- ½ cucumber
- 200 g cherry tomatoes halved or quartered
- 70 g kale
- 30 g red onion cut really small
- 1 avocado sliced or cut into cubes
- 40 g almendras tostadas y picadas
For the dressing
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- Salt and pepper
- 10 tbsp olive oil
Instructions
For the salad
- Soak the lentils for 1 hour in cold water. It's not absolutely necessary but it does help to digest them more easily.
- Get rid of the soaking water and cook them from cold water over medium-low heat. Let it simmer gently to avoid them going hard. From the moment the water boils, it will take 15-20 minutes to get them al dente. Don't cook them more than that or they will disintegrate in the salad. Remove the lentils from the water and let them cool down completely.
- Cut the cucumber in half lengthwise. Use a spoon to scrape out the seeds. Cut it in cubes.
- Some kale leaves have a thick stalk; it's best to remove it because it's not very nice to chew on. To remove it, fold the leave in half leaving the stalk to one side. Use a knife to cut it off. Then chop slightly the leaf. For leaves with thin stalks, you can just cut them up.
For the dressing
- Use a whisk to mix the lemon juice, Dijon mustard, salt and pepper.
- Add the olive oil little by little while whisking. You will see that the dressing thickens up. Adjust the level of salt and use immediately.
