This lentil quinoa salad is colorful addition to your Rosh Hashanah table it’s everything you need to not only take your first step towards all your New Year’s resolutions but discover how sweet they can be.
Quinoa and Lentil Salad
Servings
8 Servings
Ingredients
- 1/2 tablespoon turmeric
- 3 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves crushed
- 2/3 cup lentils
- 1 1/3 cup quinoa
- 2/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes
- 1 cup dates chopped
- 1 cup walnuts chopped (optional)
- 1 medium red onion diced
- 1/4 cup cilantro chopped
- 1/3 cup mint chopped
- lemon juice to taste
- balsamic vinegar to taste
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Heat a medium pot over medium heat.
- Toast your turmeric for about 2 minutes. Be sure to watch it to prevent it from burning. Once the turmeric is fragrant it is fully toasted.
- Add the oil and garlic to the pot.
- Cook for about four minutes or until the garlic cloves start to soften.
- Add the lentils and quinoa to the pot.
- Stir the contents of the pot so that you coat the lentils and quinoa with oil.
- Now pour two cups of boiling water and a pinch of salt into the pot.
- Cover the pot and cook until all the water is absorbed by the lentils and quinoa. You know that your mixture is cooked when the lentils are no longer chewy and the grains of quinoa look like little targets.
- Set the pot aside and allow your lentils and quinoa to reach room temperature.
- Place your sun-dried tomatoes into a bowl of water.
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
- Chop your dates and walnuts.*
- Place your walnuts on a roasting pan and roast them. Keep your eye on them to prevent your walnuts from burning. The second you start to smell them they are ready. Set them aside for later use.
- Place your dates, onion, cilantro, and mint into a large bowl.
- By now your sun-dried tomatoes should be looking plump.
- Remove them from the bowl of water and cut them into thin strips and add them to the bowl.
- Once your lentils and quinoa are at room temperature add them the bowl.
- Mix the contents of the bowl.
- Add olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper to taste and serve.
- *Some have the custom not to eat nuts on Rosh Hashana. This stems from the fact that the word nut-“אגוז” and sin-“חטא” have the same numeric value in Hebrew. If you follow this tradition, feel free to trade the walnuts with pumpkin or sunflower seeds to add some flavor and the crunch to the salad.
My family don’t like quinoa so I substituted it with Burgul (thick wheat grouts) and it was a hit. Thanks for the recipe
I found I needed 4 cups of water, not 2. Quinoa usually needs 2 parts water to 1 part quinoa.
When you say to toast the turmeric, do you mean ground turmeric?
Cilantro is the same as fresh coriander. It´s what they call it in North America.
Quinoa is a bit tricky. When I lived in the UK, I had to go to Waitrose or to a health food store to buy it. I also found it at Tesco once, but it varies from store to store.
Esther,
This serves 8 as a side dish.
Anna,
Quinoa can be found in many major supermarkets in the same aisle you would find your lentils.
If you cannot find fresh cilantro you can add about 12 Tbsp of dried cilantro to the dressing.
How many portions is this recipe if its a side dish?
Your and Jamie’s recipes look delicious. The main problem is that I live in England and not only can I not get some of the ingredients, ie quinoa, cilantro,I’ve never even heard of them. So sad that we don’t have a shop specialising in the strange sounding non-British ingredients.