Lentil salad, inspired by Padma Lakshmi

In my last blog i spoke about going to visit my parents along the Bellarine Peninsular and the wonderful Paella they cooked for us. So as a treat my boyfriend and I decided to cook for them the following night. Mum and Dad were very appreciative as they commented that it is very rare for them to be cooked for.

So the decision on what to cook??? Hmm...Well I had been watching Ellen during the week and she had actress/ model Padma Lakshmi,on her show. With Ellen being a vegan decided to show her how to cook a vegan dish. Therefore I can not take credit for this marvellous creation however I will tell you how fabulous and easy this dish is. Watch the video below to see how simple this is.

As you can see the Lentil salad is really a simple dish. Below are the ingredients that I put in the dish.

Ingredients:

Salad:
half a red capsicum
half a yellow capsicum
2 cans of lentils
3 stalks of celery
2 carrots diced
2 apples peeled and diced
a bunch of curly parsley chopped finely
lemon juice
balsamic vinegar

Topping:
shredded coconut
mustard seeds black/yellow
2 tsp ginger


Method:
Sauté the capsicum, celery and carrot until soft in olive oil.
Then place in the bowl with lentils, apples, parsley, lemon juice, olive oil from the pan and mix.
Then toast the coconut, mustard seeds and ginger. And that is it! How simple is that!

What is great about this recipe is all the ingredients are things you will probably have already in your kitchen. I serve the coconut topping on a separate plate so people can help themselves to how much they like.

The finished product: Lentil salad with toasted coconut, ginger and mustard seeds

If you want to impress someone with any easy dish this one is a winner. Or it is even a great salad to take to work as it wont get soggy. You cant stuff it up, trust me!
Also my mum and dad loved it. My dad is not a big salad eater but he couldn't stop raving it about it, and he is a chef so take it from him!

Enjoy :)