Squashes are a pain in the butt.
They don’t cut easily. That tough shell is not built for crappy kitchen knives purchased at Ikea for $19.99. Um, no.
But, they are delicious. So I learned a trick from wrestling with way too many spaghetti squashes (which I now bake whole, all the time)—if you put your squash in the oven BEFORE you try cutting into it, you can soften the outside and it makes cutting 894759824x easier. As long as you let it cool/wear oven mitts while cutting it.
Also, this salad rocks even though the dressing has exactly three ingredients. What! And it’s not the balsamic variety. Hello, this is a hearty, protein- and fiber-packed vegetable and lentil salad! This is what you detox on when you want to feel full because those lentils do some serious magic on your stomach. Or, mine anyway. This made me feel like I wasn’t actually trying to be healthy. Those caramelized, slightly wilted carrots. UGHHH. I could eat them all day.
In other news, I’ve been trying out a 90% raw diet this week. Do you want to see my food diary? You probably don’t. (But let me know if you do, because I’m quite fascinated at how un-angsty I am on this “diet” versus the other detox I did.)
I’m feeling loopy today. Can you tell? (I promise it’s not the vegetables. It’s just so nice outside and I just found out I have a three-day weekend and I’m so happy and kind of tired and just yee.) I’ll leave you with this: this might take some more clockage than you’d ideally want to spend on a salad, but it makes a generous amount and spring is coming so you might as well use you up dying winter squashes in this yumalicious salad! It’s totally worth it.
{Detox} Roasted vegetable lentil salad
Ingredients
- 3/4-1 cup dried French green lentils rinsed
- 1/2 pound carrots not baby carrots
- 1 small acorn squash sliced
- 2 tablespoons olive oil divided
- salt and pepper
- 1 stalk celery chopped
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Instructions
- In a medium pot, cover lentils with about two inches of water. Salt the water, bring to a boil, stir, then cover and simmer for about 40 minutes, or until lentils are cooked through. While lentils are cooking, roast the vegetables.
- Preheat oven to 375. Chop carrots into roughly equal strips. I cut mine in half length-wise, then in half width-wise, and then again if they were really fat. Spread on a baking sheet (no overcrowding), drizzle with 1 tablespoon olive oil, salt and pepper. Toss. Roast carrots for 30 minutes, flipping after 15 minutes.
- Cut squash into strips and roast in the same fashion as the carrots. Because I don’t have great knives, I softened put the squash, whole, into the oven with the carrots for the first 10-15 minutes. When I pulled it out, the skin was tender enough to easily cut through with my knife. I then cut it into pieces and roasted it (I peeled it once it was completely cooked).
- Combine the lentils and celery in a bowl. Whisk together the vinegar, oil and mustard. Toss lentil mixture with dressing and season with salt and pepper to taste. Fold in roasted vegetables.
Nancy @ gottagetbaked
Mmm…this is my kind of salad. No sad limp leaves of salad that leave me ravenous for meat and carbs. This looks fabulous! I love squash – thanks for the tip on roasting it whole before cutting. My mom is a pro at chopping them apart while raw with her giant meat cleaver and old school tree trunk cutting board. I’d probably chop my own hand off if I tried that. Roasting winter root vegetables is my favourite way of preparing them. Good luck with the detox – I’m glad to hear it’s not driving you bonkers. Go ahead and share the diet – I’ll detox vicariously through you 😉
erika
Lol I want to have your mom come and chop all my vegetables for me. My knife is so unwieldy that it’s impossible to cut anything without feeling the way you do–like I’m going to chop my hand off! Thanks for the compliments, as usual 🙂
Lianna
this is just perfect, I’ve had a bag of lentils staring at me from my cupboard for a few months now and I haven’t been sure what to do with them. I love that this is yet another recipe that uses our favourite ingredient, mustard 😛 roasted carrots are dabombb actually, they’re like sweet potatoes, when you roast them they turn into candy I swear! please please please share with us how your raw food diet is going!! I’m curious as to what you’re eating and how it’s going and how it’s making you feel. My best friend tried it last summer and lasted a day and a half, such a fail haha. She felt amazing and confident the first day, and crashed the second day, ending with a mcdonalds binge. it sounds like you are doing much better than her 😛
Stephanie
This looks delicious, and so healthy! Roasted carrots are SO good… I like to slice them into circular coins and roast them with olive oil, salt, pepper, and a touch of cinnamon. My girls can literally eat an entire baking sheet of them!
Alex @ Brain, Body, Because
This looks so delicious!
I’m ashamed to say this, but I have never tried roasting carrots before. Horrible! I am getting to work on this right away.
Also, I would be very interested in seeing your non-angsty food diary 🙂
erika
Omg actually I hadn’t either before making this salad (3 times)! I think once I tried to bake them (WHAT is the difference between baking and roasting?) maybe with not enough oil or something or not for long enough and they were totally blah. But these are AMAZING! You should definitely work on this 🙂
And thanks for the feedback! Maybe I will show a day in the life 🙂 I always love reading about your meals!!
P.S. I just looked up the difference between roasting and baking. In case you’re interested: “Generally, we “roast” food that already has a solid structure, such as meat or vegetables, in order to make it more tender inside with a nice crust on the outside.
The term “baking” typically applies to cakes, pies, and breads. In other words, we bake leavened items that need to rise during the cooking process.”
I guess that’s kind of like a “duh” answer but sort of interesting!
Kenley Leigh
Love the trick of putting the squash in the oven to soften the skin before cutting! Thanks Erika!!
Kenley
erika
Yay! Glad this was helpful 🙂
IRENA&dots
I never thought of such combination for salad although I use all these ingredients frequently. In addition of lettuce will be a very nice dinner for tonight – thanks for sharing! For cutting squashes boyfriends are handy more than fancy knifes to me 😉 Organic Dion Mustard is a queen in any kitchen. Love how you photographed baking try!
Brandi
Love lentils and I love roasted carrots! Make them all the time…sooo good! I’m actually making a lentil sweet potato soup tomorrow for guests. I love how filling they are. This looks delicious!
erika
Yum! I’m jealous of your guests! I’m so into sweet potatoes it should be a crime 🙂 And omg roasted carrots! I’ve been buying the 5 lb. organic carrot sacks weekly!
Kristi @ My San Francisco Kitchen
OMG this salad looks so good!! I love lentils, they are so healthy for you!
erika
Thanks Kristi! Yes, lentils are soooo good. I really need to eat them more often. I looked at the nutrition facts when I was making this and was stunned all over again at how low-calorie, high-protein/fiber they are! So awesome.
Katie @ Oh Shine On
Is this recipe a single serving?
erika
Nope! Sorry, I haven’t calculated the nutrition yet. I got about 3-4 servings out of this (I used a bigger acorn squash), but depends on your appetite of course!