Arugula Spiced Lentil Salad

Happy New Year,

so I am sure everyone has already began living up to their New Year Resolution. The most common resolutions are  of course exercising more, losing weight, getting fit, and last but not least is eating healthy and dieting. 

But lets be honest most people give up on those resolutions within weeks. Most resolutions fail because of many reasons among them being we make too many resolutions at one time. We don’t get started right away, unwillingness to fail when trying to achieve them, and last we quit before the finish line. But this shouldn’t discourage one from making them, rather then not making any, one should set goals, and not resolutions. Goals that are achievable and above all make one or two goals rather than making a list of things you hope to achieve. Having one or two goals allows one to really focus on it and provide the goal the attention it needs. So if you made a list of resolutions for 2016 I strongly recommend reassessing these resolutions by focusing only the ones that you know you can achieve. 

That being said, for those whose New Years resolution is eating healthy or becoming vegetarian or vegan here is a simple green recipe that requires no cooking skills, gluten free and organic. 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole brown lentils
• 1 cup of organic 
• 1 cup of baby arugula 
• 1 cup of organic spring pea mix 
• 1 large green apples
• Half cup of cashew and dried cranberry
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 1-2 lemons
• 3-4 tbsp spices (Cumin,coriander,cloves, cardamom, Chinese 5 spices)
• salt + pepper to taste

Direction: 

• In a cooking pot add 2 cups of water and and bring it to boiling. Add salt and olive oil. Once the water is boiling add lentil and reduce heat down to a strong simmer for 30-35 minutes.
• In another cooking pot bring quinoa and water to boil. Rescue heat to low, cover and summer until tender and most of the liquid has been absorbed, 15-20 minutes. Fluff wth a fork. 
• While the lentils and quinoa are cooking, prepare your green leaves (Arugula and spring pea mix), in a small bowl place a handful of baby arugula and spring pea mix, add salt olive oil  and juice of 2 lemons. 
• Check lentils tenderness periodically, remove form heat and drain when they are tender but still hold shape and have not split yet. once drained, drizzle with 1 tbsp olive oil, salt, pepper, and remaining tbsp spices (adding more to taste)
• slice the apple finely.
• In a cooking pan add little of olive oil and cashew, let it roast until golden brown.  
• Combine seasoned arugula and spring pea mix, cashew, apples, with juice of 2 lemons. Add the lentils and quinoa.