Amounts/measurements updated 26 Dec 2013
Some weeks I need to put together a fast, healthy dish that’s going to give me a bunch of leftovers and still taste delicious in a couple of days. (Actually, a lot of weeks are like that.) I’ve been trying to figure something out for months; some kind of pasta salad emerged early on as a good idea, but it took a long time to discover what holds up in the fridge. This guy does, and it’s packing all of your protein and iron, too.
- 1 box pasta
- 1 cup green lentils (dry)
- 1/2 to 1 lb. of carrots, chopped
- 1/2 stalk (about 5-8 ribs) celery, chopped
- 2 bunches of green onions, chopped
- 2-3 serrano chili peppers, minced
- 2 crowns broccoli, chopped (I quarter and chop the stems, too)
- 1 or 2 containers of hummus
- 1 lemon, juiced
- roasted sunflower seeds to taste
- salt or seasoned salt (like Cavender’s) to taste
- olive oil to taste
In a soup pot, boil the lentils in 6 cups of water for 15 minutes, then add the pasta and cook until the pasta is al dente and liquid is almost entirely absorbed. Let the lentil and pasta mix cool for 10 minutes or so, then toss in a large (read; gigantic) bowl, dress, and serve, garnished with the sunflower seeds.
You could make it fancy with good olives, capers, chili sauce… use your imagination. Anything that works with hummus should work here.