Happy Monday! 🙂 This weekend absolutely flew by. Do you agree? We lucked out with gorg weather here in Chicago and celebrated our annual Camporeale family reunion. As expected there was a TON of food–appetizers, salads, meats, pasta, potatoes and way too many desserts. I’m still full.
The morning of the party, Kara and I decided to make this Mediterranean Lentil Salad. It was inspired by the awesome Bev Cooks with a few modifications here and there. What I love about this salad is you can make it the morning of a party (or the night before), let it sit in the fridge and serve when you’re ready. The dressing soaks into the veggies and lentils and it all marries together beautifully. We added the pine nuts right before serving so that they retained their crunch. Perfection you guys.
Lentils are a fairly new ingredient to us but we all love them and add them to dishes whenever possible. I’ve been missing out! When we saw this recipe, we knew we had to try it as soon as possible. The family reunion was the perfect opportunity.
Here’s what you’ll need
While the lentils cook, cut up all the veggies
And make the dressing too
Whisk it all together
Add the veggies and the lentils to a large bowl and toss together
Drizzle the dressing on top
Top with feta and pine nuts! Serve it up!
Mediterranean Lentil Salad
Ingredients
- 1 cup green lentils, rinsed and drained
- 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
- 1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
- 1 cucumber, peeled and diced
- 1/2 cup kalamata olives, pitted and cut in half
- 2 tbsp capers
- 1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
- 8 oz feta, crumbled
For the Dressing
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- juice and zest of 1 lemon
- handful parsley, roughly chopped
- 2-3 sprigs fresh oregano, removed from stems
- salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook lentils until tender, 25-30 minutes. Drain and let cool for several minutes.
- While the lentils cook, make the dressing. Whisk together olive oil, lemon juice and zest, garlic, herbs and salt in pepper in a small bowl.
- In a large bowl, toss together red onion, tomatoes, capers, cucumber, and olives.
- Add the cooled lentils to the large bowl of veggies. Drizzle the dressing on top and toss together. Top with feta cheese crumbles and pine nuts. If it needs more liquid add the juice of another lemon.