This salad is perfect when you expect more-than-just-veggies in your healthy bowl. Power to the carbs!
The main trick is not to overboil the green lentils as you would do it in a cooked dish. Test them with a fork – if they get easily squashed after being put off the fire, you’d better turn it into a soup 🙂 or try them: they shouldn’t taste like raw beans, but still keep a firm ‘al dente’ texture.
Until the lentils get cold, you can prepare the dressing by mixing in a bowl cold pressed sunflower oil, soya sauce, lemon, grated ginger and thyme. If you love spices as much as I do, then this is the time to add some cardamom or cinnamon powder and some raisins.
The only thing left to do is to bring all ingredients together in your salad bowl. I usually use more carrots than lentils, but it goes different with each taste. I also prefer adding the onions at the very end so they don’t become too dominant.
If you’re not having the salad right away, don’t forget to check before serving how much dressing it still has – both lentils and carrots are great ‘suckers’. And to sprinkle with grated orange peel and sesame seeds!
list of ingredients
- green lentils – soaked overnight & lightly boiled
- carrots
- grated ginger
- lemon juice
- soya sauce
- cold pressed sunflower oil
- thyme (dry or fresh)
- red or green onions
- optional: cardamom, cinnamon, grated orange peel, raisins (or similar dried fruits), sesame seeds, sunflower sprouts