Recipe: Quick Tomato Lentil Salad

This is a great, simple recipe for a nice sale with that savory tomato kick. It’s a good example of how something like a tomato can act as a spice, it really kicks up the dish.  It’s also got plenty of protein, fiber, healthy fats, and taste.

1/2 cups lentils, rinsed.
1 1/2 cup water
1 medium tomato, finely diced.
1 Tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 to 1 1/2 tsp of salad dressing powder (I use my own mixture)

  1. Cook Lentil until they soften enough to be eaten but are still firm. Drain.
  2. Mix lentils with tomato and place in refrigerator until cool.
  3. Mix red wine vinegar, dressing powder, and olive oil.
  4. Add dressing mix to the lentils and tomato, stir thoroughly. Let sit in refrigerator for another 5 minutes.
  5. Stir lentil mixture. Serve.

I think that if you drained the lentils thoroughly and added the tomato you could freeze the mixture and serve later, but in my previous experience don’t try and freeze it with the dressing.  Similar experiments haven’t worked out for me.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

Potato and Garlic Soup

A little variant of a recipe I got out of a Mediterranean cookbook.

  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 large onion, sliced thin
  • 2 Tbsp crushed garlic (about 4 cloves)
  • 1 large potato, sliced thin
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika
  • 14 oz can chopped tomatoes, drained (about 1 1/2 cups tomatoes)
  • 1 tap dried basil
  • 3 cups low-sodium vegetable stock
  • salt and pepper to taste

1) Put onions, garlic, potatoes, paprika and oil into pot.  Sautee until the onions begin to soften.  Don’t overheat.
3) Add tomatoes, basil, vegetable stock.   Simmer for 20-30 minutes until potatoes are very soft.
4) With a spatula or large spoon, break potatoes up, thickening the broth.
5) Serve with salt and paper.

The result?

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