The Big Southwest Lentil Salad Bowl

Okay, this is the last lentil-based recipe I’ll be sharing for a while now. I'm sure it won’t be long before I'm itching to do another one though. Now that I've made the effort to try lentils in fun new ways I'm really inspired to keep doing it. I'm officially joining the lentil fan club!

The Canadian Recipe Revelations Challenge ends today. We’re entering a total of 4 recipes into the challenge:

• Mashed Lentil + Chickpea Salad (Pin it!)
• Sweet Pumpkin Seed Protein Granola (Pin it!)
• Roasted Garlic Red Lentil Hummus (Pin it!)
• and this one, The Big Southwest Lentil Salad Bowl (Pin it!)

Social media popularity (in this case, how many pins the entry receives) counts for 20% of the judging criteria. We’d love love love it if you could give us a hand by ‘pinning’ our entries from the Lentil Recipe Revelations Pinterest board, using the 'Pin it!' links above. Let us know if you pin our entry, we'd love to say thanks!

Update: Thank you for supporting us! Our Mashed Lentil + Chickpea Salad won the grand prize! The Big Southwest Lentil Salad Bowl was a finalist, and our Sweet Pumpkin Seed Protein Granola won for best photography. Thank you so so much!

Now, about The Big Southwest Lentil Salad Bowl! It’s quick, simple and bursting with fresh, nutritious ingredients. The base of this salad bowl is a protein rich blend of seasoned green lentils and black beans and a colourful array of bell peppers, purple onion, and baked sweet potato.

After that it’s all about the toppings (when isn't it?) I went with shredded butter lettuce, fresh chopped tomato, finely chopped red and green onion, canned corn, sliced avocado, sriracha, lime juice and cilantro. No shortage of toppings here!

If you like you can mix it up and customize this bowl as you please. Here's some more serving and topping ideas:

Guacamole, salsa, Daiya cheddar style shreds, roasted garlic hummus, your favourite taco sauce, or your favourite hot sauce. Serve this with tortilla chips or get really crazy (by that I mean you’d be crazy not to) and wrap all this heavenly goodness into a delicious loaded vegan burrito.

After taking these pictures I had to whip up some guacamole. I enjoyed a few dollops with the leftovers wrapped into a whole wheat tortilla. Ugghh. SO GOOD. I highly suggest you head on over to my guacamole recipe and make that to go with this. You will not regret it, I promise!

We’re entering this recipe into Canadian Lentils Recipe Revelations Challenge. Each recipe is judged based on taste, appeal, use of lentils, simplicity, and social media popularity. We’d be so grateful if you could help us out by ‘pinning’ this recipe from the Canadian Lentils Recipe Revelations Challenge Pinterest board. Please let us know if you do, we’d love to say thank you!

The Big Southwest Salad Bowl

★★★★ 4 from 3 reviews

• Author: Brittany at ilovevegan.com
• Prep Time: 5 minutes
• Cook Time: 35 minutes
• Total Time: 40 minutes
• Yield: 2 -4 servings 1x
• Category: Lunch and Dinner, Salad, Main Course
• Cuisine: Vegan

Print Recipe

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Description

Quick, simple and bursting with fresh, nutritious ingredients. The base of this salad bowl is a protein rich blend of seasoned green lentils and black beans and a colourful array of bell peppers, purple onion, and baked sweet potato. After that, it's all about the toppings!

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

Lentil Black Bean Sweet Potato Base

• 1 small sweet potato, baked
• 1 ½ cups cooked green lentils (or ¾ cup dry - refer to cooking instructions)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 cup chopped bell peppers (I used red, green, and yellow)
• ½ cup red onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• ¾ cup black beans, drained
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp chili powder

Toppings

• 1-2 cups mild lettuce (iceberg, butter, romaine, spinach), shredded
• 1 chopped tomato, chopped
• ¼ cup green or red onion, finely chopped
• 1 avocado (or guacamole)
• ½ cup fresh or canned corn
• 2 tbsp cilantro
• 1-2 tablespoon lime juice
• Optional: salsa, sriracha, taco sauce, vegan sour cream, Daiya shreds

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Instructions

Cooking Lentils

1. Approx. ¾ cup dry green lentils = 1 ½ cups cooked. Rinse ½ cup dry red lentils (split). Add the lentils and 2 ½ cups of unsalted water to a medium sized saucepan. Bring to a boil and boil for 20-25 minutes (until lentils are tender.)

Baking Sweet Potato

1. You can cook sweet potatoes in the microwave or oven. If using the oven, preheat to 400F. Clean the skin under running water before pricking 5-7 times with a knife or fork. Oven: Place a baking sheet and bake until tender (25-35 minutes for a small potato.) Microwave: Microwave for 5-8 minutes, flipping halfway through.

Making Lentil Black Bean Sweet Potato Base

1. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium high heat. Add the chopped peppers, red onion and garlic. Cook, stirring often until onion is nearly tender.
2. Add the lentils, black beans, sweet potato, chili powder and salt. Stir to combine and cook for 3-5 minutes or until nice and hot.

Assembling The Big Southwest Lentil Salad Bowl

1. Scoop 1+ cups of the lentils/black bean base into a bowl.
2. Top generously with ½ cup or more of shredded lettuce, ¼ of an avocado, ¼ cup fresh chopped tomato, 2 tablespoon corn, 2 tablespoon green or red onion, and a sprinkle of cilantro and lime juice.

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Notes

More serving and topping ideas: Guacamole, salsa, Daiya cheddar style shreds, roasted garlic hummus, your favourite taco sauce, your favourite hot sauce. Serve with tortilla chips or rolled into a whole wheat tortilla for a delicious burrito.