Lentils, arugula and feta cheese salad. A new holiday classic

European

5.00 / 5

Cook Time

20 mins

prep_time_text 5 mins

total_time_text 20 mins
Serving

4
Difficulty

Easy

I’m sure all of you have your own list of dishes that you cook from year to year for all holidays, including the New Year. I agree that this is convenient, because you do not need to invent anything and worry that a new dish might not turn out as good as you had hoped. However, there’s another way – you can create a festive menu by taking recipes from my website. Each recipe I came up with and cooked to make sure it tastes good. I confess, there were dishes that, in my imagination, should have turned out delicious, but in practice they did not work out that way, so they are not on the site. So how about a delicious and festive salad with lentils, arugula and cherry tomatoes? Of course, you don’t have to save it for the holidays. This salad is perfect for a meat or fish dish for lunch or dinner.

Did you know that lentils are one of the oldest cultivated plants? And in ancient Rome, it was believed that this product is able to bring wealth due to the similarity of grains to coins. In Italy, to this day, the tradition has been preserved to eat a dish of lentils on the first day of the New Year. Therefore, if you are in Italy for the Christmas holidays, do not be surprised why there are a lot of lentils in supermarkets. In this country, soups are made from lentils, they are prepared as a side dish for meat and fish dishes, and they are also added to salads.

Before moving on to the step-by-step lentil salad recipe, here are some tips to help you spice up this simple dish.

Lentils. Of course, they are the star of this salad. Unlike other beans, you don’t have to soak them before cooking. Just throw them into a pot, add some water and cook over low heat. The cooking time depends on the variety. Red lentils are cooked quickly, literally 10-15 minutes is enough, but they are very soft, so they are often used to make cream soups, pates or pie fillings. Green, brown and black lentils take longer to cook – up to 20 minutes. They retain their shape well, so they can be safely used to prepare various salads. You can even mix a few different types, then the dish will look beautiful when served. For more information on how to cook lentils, see the link.

Cheese. I used feta cheese in the salad, but you can replace it with another soft cheese. Another option is to marinate a piece of feta cheese in olive oil and a sprig of rosemary. This way you’ll end up a very flavorful ingredient. You can also add burrata cheese to this salad.

Tomatoes. In the cold months, cherry tomatoes are the tastiest of all tomatoes, and they also look beautiful when served. If it’s tomato season, you can use any kind, the main condition is that they are fleshy with a small amount of seeds. You can mix different colors, for example, combine pink tomatoes, yellow and black ones.

How to prepare salad with lentils and arugula

Ingredients

For the salad:

100 g arugula

100 g lentils

200-250 g feta cheese

250 g cherry tomatoes

For the dressing:

2-3 tbsp olive oil

1-2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Lentils, arugula and feta cheese salad. A new holiday classic: Directions

Step 1

Prepare all the ingredients for your lentil and arugula salad.

Step 2

Take 100 g of lentils, wash, add them to a pot, add enough water to submerge them and cook over low heat for 15-20 minutes. Periodically remove any foam that will form. Keep a close eye on them, because it is important that they do not boil.

Step 3

Take the cherry tomatoes, wash them and cut them in half. You can leave them intact if you like. And cut about 200-250 g of feta cheese into small cubes.

Step 4

Take the arugula, wash and place in a large bowl. Add the feta, cherry tomatoes and lentils to the arugula.

Step 5

Add the dressing: 2-3 tbsp olive oil and 1-2 tbsp balsamic vinegar. Season with salt and pepper to taste, but remember that feta cheese itself is salty enough.