Recipe: Courgette, Pea and Mint Lentil Salad
- The Honest Project
- Jul 8, 2015
- 2 min read
This is a quick and tasty salad to make. It can be made in advance and will keep in the fridge for a few days. It's ideal for putting in a mason jar and bringing to work with you. The lentils are a great source of plant based protein, iron and fibre. I try to eat lentils at least once a week, which isn't at all difficult given how tasty they are. Pea, courgette and mint is a pretty well established flavour combination. It is light and fresh and best of all delicious.
THe great thing about this salad is that it is quite inexpensive to make as there are no crazy expensive ingredients. Frozen peas are very inexpensive as are lentils. You can pick up a courgette for less than a euro (an organic one for just under 2 euro) and lemons won't break the bank. The bay leaf, olive oil and vegetable stock are cupboard staples.
For this recipe I don't cook the courgette. Until recently, I never ate courgette raw. I am not sure why, but it never crossed my mind not to cook it in some manner. However, they are really delicious raw and as I am trying to eat more and more raw foods, I opted to keep the courgette raw for this salad.
If eating this salad as a dish on its own, this recipe makes two servings. If eating it as a side or with other salads, this recipe should serve 4-6 (depending on appetites).
Ingredients:
1 cup of green lentils
1 courgette
1 cup of frozen peas
1 small handful of mint leaves
2 cups of vegetables stock
1 bay leaf
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt and black pepper to season
Method:
Add the stock, bay leaf and lentils to a saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer for about 20 minutes allowing the stock to be soaked up by the lentils. Remove the bay leaf.
Add the lentils to a bowl and while they are still warm, add the lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil and give the mixture a little stir.
Cook the peas in boiling water for about 10 minutes and when they are done, drain them and add them to the lentils.
Finely clice the courgette. If you have a mandoline or a slicing attachment on a food processor use either as you will achieve very thin slices of courgette. Add the courgette to the lentils and peas.
Set aside the salad and allow it to cool. Once it is cool, drizzle a little olive oil over the salad and roughly tear the mint leaves and add them to the salad. Season generously with salt and pepper and serve.
