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    Home » All Recipes

    The Big Southwest Lentil Salad Bowl

    The Big Southwest Lentil Salad Bowl via ilovevegan.com #vegan #glutenfree #nutfree #soyfree

    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!

    The Big Southwest Lentil Salad Bowl via ilovevegan.com #vegan #glutenfree #nutfree #soyfree

    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!

    The Big Southwest Lentil Salad Bowl via ilovevegan.com #vegan #glutenfree #nutfree #soyfree

    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!

    The Big Southwest Lentil Salad Bowl via ilovevegan.com #vegan #glutenfree #nutfree #soyfree

    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!

    Print
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    The Big Southwest Lentil Salad Bowl via ilovevegan.com #vegan #glutenfree #nutfree #soyfree

    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
    Pin Recipe

    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!


    Ingredients

    Scale

    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

    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.

    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.

    Did you make this recipe?

    Tag @ilovegan on Instagram and hashtag it #ilovegan

     

    « Roasted Garlic Red Lentil Hummus
    Healthy Veggie Lentil Shepherd's Pie »

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. marissa franz

      January 26, 2020 at 6:15 pm

      loved this recipe i missssss myth food spice so much and this is a perfect way to stay vegan and get that kick of heat! thank you

      Reply
    2. Anne

      May 19, 2018 at 12:45 pm

      The instructions mention both green and red lentils yet the ingredient list mentions only green. Can you please clarify this for me? Looking forward to trying this!

      Reply
      • Brittany

        May 20, 2018 at 7:39 pm

        Oh my! Yep, that's a mistake in the recipe. It should only be referring to GREEN lentils. I think red lentils would be too mushy for this recipe while green lentils have heartier texture. I apologize for the confusion!

        Reply
    3. Laura

      June 02, 2015 at 3:34 pm

      I really don't know why this doesn't have better reviews. My boyfriend and I eat this or a variation of this every week (if not more).

      We like to add a Sriracha baked tofu to put in the bowl as well.

      I'm so happy I found this recipe!!!!

      Thank you!

      ★★★★★

      Reply
      • Brittany

        June 02, 2015 at 5:01 pm

        Thanks Laura, I'm so glad you guys enjoy this recipe! Ugh, that sounds so good with extra tofu, I'll have to try that ASAP!

        Reply
    4. cm

      February 24, 2015 at 3:46 pm

      I would love to get a copy of this photo to use in our kitchen--trying to redecorate and add a little colour to the space.
      This looks great.

      ★★★★

      Reply
      • Brittany

        February 24, 2015 at 5:43 pm

        Thanks Cheryl! These would be great shots for a kitchen 😀

        Reply
    5. Saniel

      February 24, 2015 at 8:04 am

      Yum. Pinned it

      ★★★

      Reply
      • Brittany

        February 24, 2015 at 9:23 am

        Thanks so much Saniel! 🙂

        Reply

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