Lentil and Quinoa Salad

One of the best things I ever did for my health was learn to love salads. It was not always an easy endeavour. Initially, I tended to lean towards salads that were heavily dressed to replace the flavour that I was missing. However, often salad dressings undo all of the good work that the salad intended to do.

Until I learned one thing... buy a decent dicer. Many of us do not have the dexterity in our wrists to be able to finely chop and dice vegetables, I am one of them and for years it didn't bother me. Until I realised that I was leaving behind all of the natural beautiful taste that is contained in the vegetables. Often when they are diced correctly they taste completely differently!

Furthermore, one of the greatest things I ever learned when preparing salads: dice the lettuce to unleash the taste. That is also perfect for the preparation of burgers, hotdogs and fajitas, for example.

So this recipe is really proof that when the vegetables are prepared correctly that you don't need heavy dressing. This is a lentil and quinoa salad. It takes roughly 20 minutes to prepare unless you have to cook your lentils.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of Red Lentils
• 2 cups of Quinoa
• 1 cup of mixed salad leaves (I get a mix of rocket, iceberg, red cabbage and spinach)
• Half a Red Pepper
• Bunch of Coriander 
• 1 Red Onion
• 1 Bunch of Spring Onions
• 1 Large Tomato
• Half a Cucumber
• Oil
• 1 Large Lemon
• Salt and Pepper

Directions:

1. Prepare the Quinoa and the Red Lentils if they are not already cooked.
2. Dice all of the remaining vegetables - including the lettuce and add to a bowel.
3. Juice the lemon
4. Mix all of the ingredients together.
5. Add the lemon and drizzle olive oil over the mixture
6. Add salt and pepper to taste.
7. Enjoy!