Zucchini Red Lentil Salad

During vegetable garden season I try and use things I grow to make up most of our meals. Today we had some friends for lunch. Since I don’t grow protein I added Salmon to the menu. I also don’t have any melons growing yet so I had to supplement with a store bought watermelon, but every other dish was full of the bounty from the garden.

We had sumac rolls which were filled of herbs from the garden. Watermelon salad with mint, lime and salt was yummy. The best dish was a zucchini red lentil salad. It was easy and could be an entire meal as the lentils are full of protein.

2 medium zucchini cut into 1/4 inch rounds

1 cup of red lentils

1/4 cup of goat cheese

Three handfuls of arugula

Twenty basil leaves, chopped

Olive oil

Lemon juice

Shallot vinaigrette

1 shallot minced

Juice of a lemon

3 T. champagne vinegar

1/3 cup of olive oil

1 t. Sugar

1/2 t. Salt

Black pepper

Heat fry pan to medium hot, coat bottom with olive oil. Salt and pepper zucchini rounds and place in single layer of fry pan. Cook until light brown on one side and and flip and cook the other side.

Place Red lentils in Sauce pan and cover with water. Bring pot to boil and cook for two minutes once boiling. Drain the lentils. Add zucchini and lentils to bowl and squirt a little lemon and dash of olive oil on them and chill.

Make vinaigrette by mixing everything together in a jar and shake vigorously.

When ready to serve, crumble goat cheese in the bowl with the veggies and add the arugula and basil. Add vinaigrette a little at a time so as not to over power the salad. You won’t use all the vinaigrette. Toss and enjoy.