Warm Lentil Salad

Well... I promised all of you (and myself ha ha) that I would try my hand at more cooking recipes when I had the chance! I thought it would be a good day for me to pitch in. I went shopping and then made some dinner. I made the staple Cranberry Quinoa salad (recipe was posted a long long time ago)... such an easy dish and possibly one of my most faves! I scoured one of my recipe books for an easy, unique dish that I had most of the ingredients for (since my mom was in Vancouver I really had no one to direct my cooking questions too... so this was a big challenge for me). This recipe says the salad is best warm, but also great cold (I served it warm)...

Warm Lentil Salad

*oil-free, wheat-free, soy-free

(from The Vegan Table by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau)

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups small French lentils du Puy (or brown lentils if others aren't available)

3 1/4 cups vegetable stock

2 sprigs of fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried (I used dried)

2 bay leaves

2 Tbsp water, for sauteing

1 yellow onion, coarsely chopped

2 carrots, peeled and finely chopped

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

2 Tbsp Dijon mustard

1/4 cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf or curly Italian parsley

Directions:

-Combine lentils, stock, thyme, and bay leaves in a medium-size saucepan and simmer over low-medium heat until lentils are tender (about 45 min... check after 30 min to make sure water hasn't evaporated)

-Remove from heat, drain liquid and discard bay leaves... transfer to a mixing bowl (the rest of the ingredients can be added while cool or warm)

-Sautee onion and carrots over medium heat and stir into lentils

-Stir in vinegar, mustard and parsley

-Serve warm or cold!

Makes 8 servings

Per serving:

188 calories

2 g fat

12 g protein

32 g carbohydrate

12 g dietary fiber

0 mg cholesterol

719 mg sodium

Notes: This dish was so delicious, it has a very unique mustard/vinegar taste that sets it apart from a lot of other bean/lentil dishes. I think next time I will add more than double the amount of lentils to the same amount of vinegar/mustard (great flavour, but maybe too many for the amount of lentils). Otherwise... delish!

Mmm... quinoa... and cranberries :)

Enjoy!!