New Salad

After using only half a cup of lentils from a large can for a different recipe, I decided to make a salad with the leftovers.  I wanted to use cous cous in the salad, but we didn't have any, so I substituted orzo.  Then I started creating from there!  Here's what I ended up with:

And here's how to make it:

3/4 cup dry orzo

5 dried apricots

1/3 cup raisins

1 cup cooked brown lentils

4 green onions, sliced

1 red or orange bell pepper, diced

2 large handfuls of spinach, minced *

10 to 15 grape tomatoes, cut in quarters lengthwise

juice of 1 small lemon

1 tsp olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp salt

Add the orzo to boiling water and cook until al dente - this doesn't take very long, by the way!  Just before the orzo is finished, drop in the apricots and raisins to soften them up.  Drain and rinse with cold water.  Remove the apricots and dice.  Once drained, put the orzo, raisins and apricots into a big bowl.  Add the lentils, green onions, pepper.  Mix together.  Toss in the minced spinach.  Add the tomatoes and toss gently.  Mix together the lemon juice, olive oil, garlic and salt, then mix into the salad.  Let marinate overnight to allow the flavours to soak in.

* I was looking for something green here and wanted to use parsley, but I didn't have any so I used spinach instead!  Works for colour and is okay for taste, but I would prefer to use parsley.  Please feel free to substitute parsley for the spinach.