Roasted Carrot and Lentil Salad -- a warm and warming #recipe

LESLIE BUDEWITZ:  This salad makes a great main dish or side salad, especially in these shifting seasons where we still need warm and warming food, but want something a little lighter. It’s also great for those looking to eat more vegetables and expand their sources of protein.

We used honey and feta, but maple syrup and goat cheese would be equally tasty. For the lentils, the amount of water and length of cooking time varies; the larger brown lentils take 3 parts water to one part lentils. Don’t worry if you end up with more than a cup of cooked lentils – this recipe is flexible. 

Plus it’s yummy, quick enough for a weeknight, and reheats nicely. What more could you want? Okay, endless, no-calorie chocolate chip cookies would be nice, but that’s another post! (I wish!) We served it with pan-roasted salmon, but it would also go beautifully with chicken or any other fish, or all by itself. 

Roasted Carrot and Lentil Salad 

For the salad:

1 cup cooked lentils (1/3 to ½ cup dried, depending on the size and variety)

1-1/2 pounds carrots (8 medium to large)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon honey or maple syrup

½ teaspoon dried thyme

kosher salt

fresh ground pepper

2 cups fresh spinach (about 2 large handfuls)

½ cup crumbled feta or goat cheese

For the dressing:

1/3 cup olive oil

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1 small shallot, diced (or sliced, if you’re using an immersion blender)

1 tablespoon honey or maple syrup

2 teaspoons Dijon-style mustard

additional salt and pepper, to taste

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. 

In a loosely covered pot on the stovetop, start the lentils cooking while you prep the rest of the ingredients and roast the carrots.

Scrub and trim the carrots. Slice into rounds, about 1/4" thick. In a medium bowl, mix the 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 tablespoon honey or maple syrup, and thyme. Season with salt and pepper. Add carrots and stir to coat. Place on sheet pan and spread evenly, in a single layer. Roast 20-25 minutes, stirring midway through, until fork-tender and the glaze is just beginning to brown.

Meanwhile, rinse the spinach. Tear the leaves if they are large and place in a large serving bowl. Combine the dressing ingredients in a small bowl and whisk until emulsified, or blend with an immersion blender or small food processor. 

When the carrots are done, allow them to cool for a few minutes. Add the cooked lentils to the bowl with the spinach, then add the carrots and about half the dressing. Stir to coat. Taste and add additional salt and pepper if needed. Top with the crumbled cheese.

Serve with the remaining dressing.

Makes 2-4 servings, depending on size. 

Bon appetit!

TO ERR IS CUMIN

A Spice Shop Mystery (Seventh St. Books, coming July 16, 2024 in paper, ebook, and audio)

From the cover: 

One person’s treasure is another’s trash. . .

Pepper Reece, owner of the Spice Shop in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, wants nothing more than to live a quiet life for a change, running her shop and working with customers eager to spice up their cooking. But when she finds an envelope stuffed with cash in a ratty old wingback left on the curb, she sets out to track down the owner.

Pepper soon concludes that the chair and its stash may belong to young Talia Cook, new in town and nowhere to be seen. Boz Bosworth, an unemployed chef Pepper’s tangled with in the past, shows up looking for the young woman, but Pepper refuses to help him search. When Boz is found floating in the Ship Canal, only a few blocks from Talia’s apartment, free furniture no longer seems like such a bargain.

On the hunt for Talia, Pepper discovers a web of connections threatening to ensnare her best customer. The more she probes, the harder it gets to tell who’s part of an unsavory scheme of corruption—and who might be the next victim.

Between her quest for an elusive herb, helping her parents remodel their new house, and setting up the Spice Shop’s first cooking class, Pepper’s got a full plate. Dogged by a sense of obligation to find the rightful owner of the hidden treasure, she keeps on showing up and asking questions.

One mistake, and she could find herself cashing out. . .

Available at Amazon  * Barnes & Noble  * Books-A-Million * Bookshop.org * And your local booksellers!

Leslie Budewitz is the author of the Spice Shop Mysteries set in Seattle's Pike Place Market, and the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, set in NW Montana. As Alicia Beckman, she writes moody, standalone suspense, most recently Blind Faith. She is the winner of Agatha Awards in three categories: Best Nonfiction (2011), Best First Novel (2013), and Best Short Story (2018). Her latest book is Between a Wok and a Dead Place, the 7th Spice Shop mystery.  

A past president of Sisters in Crime and national board member of Mystery Writers of America, Leslie lives in northwest Montana with her husband, a musician and doctor of natural medicine, and their cat, an avid bird-watcher.

Swing by Leslie's website and join the mailing list for her seasonal newsletter. And join her on Facebook where she shares book news and giveaways from her writer friends, and talks about food, mysteries, and the things that inspire her.