Carrot, lentil and mint salad
This yummy salad is easily made within my seven-minute time frame. In fact, tonight when I was making it so I could take the photos in this post, it only took 6 minutes and 15 seconds. Win!
Why seven-minute meals?
Seven minutes timeframe for these recipes was a length of time I picked at random, based on the amount of time it took to defrost the sort of microwave lasagne I was living on at the time.
The 7-minute timeframe gave me both a target and a release. Aiming to cook 7-minute meals gave me more freedom to experiment, if I stuffed up I would only have wasted 7 minutes and I could still order takeaway. Basing it on the time it took to microwave a frozen dinner helped set my expectations too. I want a meal that’s tastier than a frozen dinner, but I’m not aiming for cordon bleu. The great thing about cooking with fresh ingredients and whole foods is that I have found I often don’t need a tonne of fancy spices or elaborate preparations to make food taste great.
I still spend far too long berating myself that the meals I cook are not up to scratch, that it would be tastier if I had ground the spices myself or used fresh rather than canned tomatoes. And that true, but it’s a spectrum. I don’t have to give up cooking because I use curry powder or minced garlic from a jar.
I occasionally cook fancy on the weekends, making elaborate meals with long lists of ingredients and getting every pan I own dirty. But even on the weekend I rarely have the time or at least I don’t make time, there are other things I want to do more than spend 4 hours preparing a meal, even if that’s just binge watching Netflix. And that’s okay.
Today’s recipe was inspired by one of the recipes I make from scratch when I have the time, Coconut and Berries Morrocan Puy Lentil, Carrot and Mint Salad. Using canned lentils and pre-ground spices makes it quick to make and it’s still packed with flavour.
Carrot, lentil and mint salad
Ingredients
- 1 can brown lentils
- 2 large carrots
- 1/4 cup chopped mint
- 1/2 a lemon
- 1 tablespoon garam masla power
- 1 tablespoon chilli flakes
- 1 tablespoon EVOO
Method
- Add the garam masala to a dry pan and cook until it starts to smell fragrant
- While the garam masala is cooking drain the can of lentils (make sure to run water over the lentils until it runs clear and all the bubbles disappear)
- Add the lentils to the garam masala and stir to coat the lentils with the spice powder
- Leave the lentils to warm and finely slice the carrots.
- Mix everything together in a bowl and serve.
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Seven Minute Vegetarian 