Lentil And Feta Cheese Salad. Step-by-step Recipe With Photo

Lentil and feta cheese salad is a tasty, healthy and nutritious dish suitable for a vegetarian table, that part of it that does not reject dairy products. Strict vegetarians can replace feta cheese with tofu cheese, it will also turn out delicious. With tofu, the recipe can be added to the lean menu. Legumes and cheese are important sources of protein, which is well absorbed by our body, with such products, meat is not needed!

A wide variety of dishes are prepared from lentils; they are delicious in soup, stews, but simply incomparable in salads. For this, brown varieties of bean "queen" are better suited - they do not boil over during cooking, the grains remain whole and elastic after dressing with sour sauce. But, unlike red, which takes about 15 minutes to cook, green and brown will have to cook for almost an hour, but you will be rewarded with the incomparable nutty flavor characteristic of these varieties.

• Cooking time: 1 hour 10 minutes
• Servings: 4

Ingredients for a salad with lentils and feta cheese

• 160 g green lentils;
• 200 g fresh salad;
• 150 g carrots;
• 100 g of onions;
• 4 cloves of garlic;
• 150 g red tomatoes;
• 130 g feta cheese;
• 30 ml extra virgin olive oil;
• 30 g white sesame seeds;
• salt, ground paprika, black pepper, vegetable oil for frying.

Method of preparing salad with lentils and feta cheese

Put the green lettuce leaves in a deep bowl filled with cold water, after a few minutes put them in a colander, rinse under the tap, dry on a towel or in a special centrifuge. Shred the leaves in wide strips (about 2-3 centimeters).

We boil the lentils and leave them to cool, so that, mixing with the herbs, it does not turn the latter into an unappetizing mess. So, we sort it out, wash it, fill it with cold water (take 300 ml of water for 150 g of grains), cook for 45 minutes. Salt for 10 minutes until cooked.

We put it in a colander so that the excess water is glass, we send the cooled lentils to the salad bowl.

Cut the carrots into cubes, finely chop the onions, cut the garlic cloves into slices. Preheat a frying pan, pour a tablespoon of vegetable oil, fry the vegetables until the onion becomes transparent. When the sautéing is cool, add to the salad bowl.

Cut ripe, red and fleshy tomatoes into large cubes and add to the rest of the ingredients.

Season vegetables with ground red pepper, black pepper and salt, mix. To taste, you can add any ground spices that you like - coriander, cumin, mustard.

Now pour in the extra virgin olive oil. You always need to season vegetables in this order - first salt and spices, and then oil.

Cut the cheese into cubes with an edge of one centimeter. Put a portion of salad on a plate, sprinkle with cheese. If you put the cheese in a salad bowl and stir it, it will creep out, making unappetizing pieces, so it is better to add it directly to the plate before serving.

Fry the sesame seeds until golden brown in a dry frying pan with a thick bottom. Sprinkle the salad with lentils and feta cheese with golden sesame seeds, pepper with black pepper and immediately serve. Bon Appetit!