Apple, Lentil and Wild Rice Salad

If you ever want to try to make your own recipes, soups and salads are a great place to start. I don’t think you could muck it up too badly.

I was inspired by Chocolate & Zucchini’s Apple and Cumin Lentil Salad. I knew I wanted to keep the base flavours the same with the apple, lentils and cumin, but change things around as well.

To keep this a filling hearty meal, I added wild rice which had a nutty flavour that complemented the rest of the salad ingredients. The tofu was removed. I added in chopped carrot for crunch and kept the dressing ingredients fresh (Clotilde cooked hers a tad). The dressing was increased because of the larger volume of the salad, but it is not heavy at all. It was fresh, yet hearty at the same time. Sweet and savoury with the apple and cumin. Play around with this theme and see what you can create!

This is my submission to this month’s No Croutons Required featuring rice, to Deb for this week’s Souper Sundays and to this week’s BSI with cumin.

Apple, Lentil and Wild Rice Salad

3/4 cup wild rice
1 cup green lentils, picked over and rinsed (I used du Puy which cook in 30 minutes – green/brown lentils usually take 45 minutes to cook so add in earlier)
2 shallots, finely minced
1 apple (I used Granny Smith), chopped (coat with a sprinkle of lemon juice if you don’t want it to brown like mine!)
1 carrot, chopped

2 tsp ground cumin
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, to taste

1. Rinse the wild rice thoroughly. In a heavy saucepan, bring ~4 cups of salted water to a boil. Once boiling, add in wild rice. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 25 minutes. Now add your rinsed lentils and continue to simmer the wild rice and lentils for an additional 30 minutes.  Drain any excess liquid and set aside.

2. In a large salad bowl, whisk together the dressing ingredients (cumin, garlic, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper and chili flakes to taste).

3. Combine the wild rice, lentils, apple, carrot, shallot and toss gently with dressing.  Taste and adjust the seasoning. Cover and refrigerate for a couple of hours if possible. Serve cold or at room temperature.

Serves 6-8.