Italian Lentil Salad

My husband always says “you don’t make friends with salad”.  But I care to disagree.  My favourite part of hosting a BBQ is having the excuse to make lots and lots of salads.  The beautiful thing about this salad is that it lasts for several days in the fridge, and in fact gets better with time.  This means that you can make it a day or two before the event and it will still last for a day or two after… in my humble opinion, having a fridge full of left overs is one of the perks of being a host!

Ingredients:

1 cup dry brown lentils, rinsed 1/2 red onion, finely diced 1 cup mushroom, sliced 2 cloves garlic

Handful of rocket or bitter greens

6 tbs Italian Salad Dressing

Method:

Place the lentils in a medium saucepan and cover with plenty of cold water.  Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered until lentils are tender but not mushy.  This will take about 16-20 minutes.  Keep an eye on them from around the 15 minute mark.

Drain the lentils and once cool add to a large bowl.

Saute the onions, mushroom and garlic in a dash of olive oil until just cooked.

Add the sauteed ingredients to the lentils. Mix carefully to combine

Pour over the Italian dressing, combine well and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Carefully mix through the rocket or bitter greens so as not to bruise the leaves.

This salad is nicest served at room temperature.

Will keep for 1-2 days in the fridge.

Enjoy!

Sandra xo