Greek Lentil Salad

Whenever I get my Vegetarian Times Magazine in the mail, I am like a little kid, seriously.  I go through the entire magazine, page by page, looking at the tasty pictures, going through the recipes and dreaming about preparing every dish out of it. What usually ends up happening though, is after looking at the magazine for a week or so, I retire it to the bookcase and maybe will look at it again several months later when I am reorganizing the book cases.  Then I'll sigh about the recipes again, but I usually don't make the recipes.  Not sure what was different this time around, but I saw this recipe for a Green Lentil Salad and decided I had to make it.  It was good that I was going to a picnic in Prospect Park, because I could use it all up, so I decided to make it and bring it along.  It was pretty decent and everyone seemed to like it, though I likely should have added the chopped cucumbers right before serving it, because they got a little soft from sitting in the dressing.  But it was a nice addition to the rest of the meal.  I probably wont make it again, but it was good.

Greek Lentil Salad:





A lot of Pretty Colors and Contrasting Textures!

Serves 6 as a side dish, 4 as an entree

1 cup French Green lentils, rinsed
2 bay leaves

1large shallot, small diced, about 1/4 cup
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 small cucumber, seeded & diced, about 1 cup
2 medium tomatoes, diced, about 1 cup
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup crumbled mock feta

1.  Place lentils and bay leaves in a medium pot, cover with water, and cook over medium heat for about 25-30 minutes, or until lentils are tender. 
2.  Drain, remove bay leaves and allow to cool while preparing the rest of the salad. 
3.  Stir together the lemon juice and shallot in a medium bowl and allow to sit while prepping the remaining ingredients.  This will allow the bite of the shallot to mellow a bit. 
4.  Add the remaining ingredients to the bowl: the lentils, cucumber, tomatoes, mint and olive oil.  Toss together.  Add the mock feta and season to taste with sea salt and black pepper.  Toss gently. 
5.  Store in the refrigerator until ready to eat.  That's it!  Super simple!

Enjoy!

-Koko