Brown Rice and Puy Lentil Salad
I recently made this for our Nurture & Nourish Women's retreat with brown basmati rice and it was delicious! A Quick & Easy vegetarian recipe if you have left over rice and a can of brown lentils or pre-cooked frozen puy lentils (I usually cook huge batches of lentils and freeze them in small zip locked bags).
Ingredients:
2 tomatoes
1 red onion
1 carrot
2 celery stalks
1 cup basmati brown rice, cooked and cooled
100 ml extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 cup puy lentils or can of brown lentils
3 tablespoons chopped coriander
3 tablespoons chopped mint
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted
2 cups baby English spinach leaves
Method:
Score a cross in the base of each tomato. Put in a heatproof bowl and cover with boiling water. Leave for 30 seconds, then transfer to cold water, drain and peel away the skin from the cross. Cut the tomatoes in half, scoop out the seeds and dice the flesh. A little bit of work chopping but important step otherwise the salad becomes too wet. Dice the onion, carrot and celery.
Heat two tablespoons of the oil in a saucepan and add the onion, garlic, carrot and celery. Cook over low heat for 5 minutes, or until softened, then add the puy lentils and 1 1/2 cups of water. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 15 minutes, or until tender. Drain well, but do not rinse.
Or just cook the onion, garlic, carrot and celery and add the strained can of lentils or defrosted lentils (just pour boiling water over lentils) and heat through. Combine with the rice, tomato, coriander, and mint in a large bowl. Whisk the remaining oil with the vinegar and lemon juice and season well. Pour over the salad, add the pine nuts and English spinach, and toss to combine.
