Lentil & Avocado Salad

This is a super healthy salad packed full of vitamins! It’s also completely customizable – you can add or omit ingredients to your liking. I use Trader Joe’s pre-cooked lentils for convenience, but you can also make the lentils yourself. Just buy dried lentils and cook them in water according to instructions on the package. If you cook them yourself, you will want to add a little extra seasoning (salt & pepper and maybe a little extra lemon juice) as the Trader Joe’s lentils come pre-seasoned. For this salad, I like to chop all the veggies into tiny pieces. This probably makes about 3 servings, although it’s such a healthy dish I say eat as much as you can!

Ingredients:

• 1 package Trader Joe’s lentils
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1/2 yellow or red bell pepper chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped cherry tomatoes
• 2 stalks of broccoli, florets only, chopped
• 1 avocado, sliced
• 1 cup thinly sliced fennel
• arugula (optional)
• juice of 1 lemon
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• salt & pepper to taste

 

1. Fill a pot of water to boil. Chop broccoli into small pieces (florets only; you can discard the stems). Add broccoli to boiling water and cook for about 90 seconds. Drain water in strainer, and set broccoli aside.

2. Chop carrots, bell pepper and tomatoes into tiny pieces. Cut fennel into very thin slices (if you’ve never cooked or chopped fennel before, you can get a tutorial here).

3. Add lentils to a large bowl. The Trader Joe lentils are in a big block, so you’ll want to break it up with a spoon.

4. Add carrots, bell pepper, broccoli, and tomatoes to lentils and mix.

5. Add lemon juice, olive oil, and salt & pepper to taste.

7. Add lentil salad to a  bed of arugula if desired. Top with sliced avocado.

That’s it!