Lentil Salad with Spring Veggies, Mint and Yogurt

A delicious, healthy, Greek-inspired lentil salad recipe, loaded up with spring veggies, lemon and fresh mint served over optional yogurt sauce.  Vegan adaptable and Gluten-Free!

The farmers market is overflowing with the most beautiful spring produce! I picked a few up veggies  at the Kendall Yards Night Market from a farm stand run by River City Youth Ops– a local Spokane organization that empowers youth to be strong and dynamic voices in their own lives and community. They learn a variety of job skills through hands-on urban farming, to harvesting to selling their beautiful goods at the farmers market.

A whole farm-to-market learning experience, which in my mind is a brilliant skill for anyone to learn, no matter what the age. Not only does this teach kids about food, but also about business. A nice balance.  River City Youth Ops also offer a veggie subscription box to those who live here locally in Spokane if you are interested.

So anyhow…. I got some fresh picked veggies for this Greek-inspired lentil salad recipe, and pretty much just loaded it up.

I steamed the veggies – but you could also grill (my grill is broken) or blanch. If using rainbow chard, simply chop and wilt in a pan with a little olive oil, garlic or shallot, salt and pepper. Love the radishes raw and crunchy.

Toss it all together with the lemony dressing and the mint.

Instead of adding crumbled feta or goat cheese to this salad, which I did not have at the time, I made a creamy yogurt sauce and placed it on the bottom of the lentil salad as a base. So tasty!

This would be terrific with toasty pita bread!

Give it a whirl and see what you think!

Have a great Fathers Day.

xoxo

Lentil Salad with Spring Veggies, Mint and Yogurt Sauce

★★★★★

5 from 1 reviews

A delicious, healthy, Greek inspired lentil salad recipe with spring veggies, lemon and mint served over optional yogurt sauce.  Vegan adaptable and Gluten-Free

• Author: Sylvia Fountaine
• Prep Time: 15
• Cook Time: 25
• Total Time: 40 minutes
• Yield: 3-4
• Category: Salad, Vegan, Legumes, Gluten-free
• Method: Tossed
• Cuisine: Greek

Ingredients

• 2 cups cooked lentils (Black Caviar or French Green are nice- not not use split lentils) about ¾ cup dry.
• 3 cups spring veggies- your choice of snap peas, english peas, snow peas, green beans, asparagus, radishes or chard
• 3 tablespoons red onion- chopped fine, or sub green onion
• 1-2 garlic cloves, finely minced- use a garlic press
• ¼ cup chopped mint leaves (2 ounces) or sub dill or italian parsley, but mint is nice. 😉
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 lemon, zest and juice
• 1 teaspoon sumac -optional but yummy!
• salt and pepper to taste

Optional Yogurt Sauce:

• 1 cup plain thick greek yogurt ( or sub vegan yogurt)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons fresh chopped dill (or mint)
• 2 garlic cloves finely minced
• ½ teaspoon sumac (optional)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste

Instructions

Cook the lentils in salted water until tender, but not falling apart.  Lightly steam, grill or blanch the veggies. If adding radishes, you can keep those raw and crunchy- (or feel free to grill them). If using chard, finely chop and wilt in a pan with a little olive oil, shallot or garlic, and salt and pepper.

Place the lentils, veggies, onion, garlic and mint in a bowl. Toss with the olive oil, lemon zest and juice form ½ a lemon. Season generously with salt, pepper and optional sumac. Adjust lemon, adding more if you like. If it’s bland, it most likely needs salt.

Make the optional Yogurt Sauce to lather on the bottle of the plate or platter.

Mix all the ingredients together in a small bowl

Smear the yogurt sauce on a platter (or individual bowls or plates) then top with lentil salad. Dive in.

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