Van's Road Trip Lentil Salad

Just a short post today as we run off for a fun weekend in Vermont.

The lentil salad that I got at Bon Appetit last week inspired me to make this salad. I have made the lentil salad from the "Great Healthy Food for Strong Bones" cookbook*, but Jar doesn't like it quite as much as I do, so I decided to make it a little different, borrowing heavily on the suggested dressing from that book.



Ingredients:

• about 1/2 a bag of dried lentils (I used Goya because they're cheap)
• a 2 inch log of goat cheese
• 1/3 of a sweet onion
• 1/4 green bell pepper
• 4-5 baby carrots
• 1 tomato
• olive oil
• balsamic vinegar
• mustard powder
• garlic powder
• mustard powder
• dash of paprika
• salt + pepper

Method: Cook the lentils in plenty of water until tender - about 15-20 minutes. Immediately crumble in the goat cheese and stir it around until it melts. Put the onion, bell pepper and carrots in a food processor if you have one and process until smooth. Otherwise chop finely. Seed and chop the tomato. Add all veggies to the lentils. For the dressing mix together (to taste) the remaining ingredients.

*for those of you interested, this is an awesome book. I got on sale at the used bookstore in Cleveland, and it looks like you can find it on Amazon for about a dollar. Just read "strong bones" as "lots of cheese." :-)