This vegan meal combines tender roasted whole carrots, protein-rich lentils and fresh carrot greens for a delicious healthy meal. Topped and garnished with pistachios, pomegranate and refreshing yoghurt drizzle, these oriental roasted carrots on lentil salad create a beautiful contrast in color and taste.
This salad is hearty enough to serve for dinner. It keeps well in the fridge for a few days. Store the non-dairy yogurt sauce separately to ensure the greens don’t wilt. This Vegan Lentil Salad with Roasted Root Vegetables recipe could well be a fall/winter staple. It’s easy, doesn’t take much time, is a balanced meal, and most importantly, tastes great.
In pumpkin season, you can use this instead of carrots. But since pumpkin season is long gone, I’m sticking to carrots for now. Carrots are definitely quicker and easier to prepare than a pumpkin, which first has to be cored and portioned. But when the pumpkin season is over again, you should try this recipe with pumpkin.
I’m not sure when I really started loving lentils. These days it’s a tasty addition to my vegan diet and I never understand when people (especially vegans/vegetarians) tell me they don’t like lentils. They’re the ideal food, especially if you live in Europe where they’re grown locally.
I make vegan oriental roasted carrots on lentil salad for a quick lunch on the weekends or dinner mainly during the week. It tastes almost as good when served cold. Well, I like to pack up the roasted carrot salad and bring it to work. If you’re looking for an easy and quick weeknight dinner, you’ve found it. You’ll need less than 45 minutes from start to finish, including prep and cooking. Note that particularly large carrots can be halved or even quartered to allow for a reasonable cooking time.
Also, the ingredients are easy to find and affordable. If you don’t want to spend money on dukkah, don’t like it, or can’t get hold of it, you can substitute with cumin or garam masala instead.
if you like our oriental roasted carrots on lentil salad, you might also be interested in these dishes:
- Oriental fried oatmeal with vegetables
- roasted cauliflower on mashed potatoes
- Moroccan Black Lentil Salad
- Lukewarm lentil salad on baked leeks
- Dukkah tabbouleh with roasted vegetables
- tender miso onions from the oven
oriental roasted carrots on lentil salad
Ingredients Â
carrots:
- 1 bundle carrots about 8-10 carrots with greens
- 2 tbsp. native olive oil*
- ½ tsp kosher salt*
- 2 tsp dukkah*
- 1 tsp agave syrup*
Lenses:
- 300 grams Lenses* dried
- 2 tbsp. native olive oil*
- 1½ dukkah*
- 3 tbsp. Carrot green pesto >> recipe link
- juice of half a lemon
- kosher salt*
- Pepper* from the mill
Yoghurt Drizzle:
- 200 grams soy yoghurt
- 1 small bunch parsley
- juice of half a lemon
- ½ tsp garlic powder*
- kosher salt*
- Black pepper* from the mill
Topping:
- ½ pomegranate
- small Bunch of fresh parsley
- pistachios*
InstructionsÂ
Prepare carrots:
- Preheat the oven to 190°C.
- Wash the carrots and cut off the greens and set aside. Whether you peel the carrots is entirely up to you.
- In a small bowl, mix the olive oil with dukkah, salt and agave nectar.
- Place the carrots on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Brush the carrots evenly with the seasoned olive oil.
- Bake carrots in the oven for about 25 to 30 minutes. Depending on the size, the time may vary slightly. When finished, the carrots should be soft and lightly browned.
Prepare lentil salad:
- While the carrots are baking, cook the lentils according to package directions (about 20 minutes depending on variety). Pour the lentils through a sieve and drain well. Put aside.
- Make a pesto out of the carrot greens. This is how it's done.
- Season the lentils with the pesto, lemon juice, dukkah, salt and pepper and taste.
Prepare the yoghurt drizzle:
- Rinse the parsley, shake dry and chop.
- Simply stir the yoghurt with parsley and all other ingredients until smooth and season to taste.
Arranging and serving:
- Rinse the parsley, shake dry and chop.
- Roughly chop the pistachios and lightly toast them in a pan without adding any fat.
- Knock the seeds out of the pomegranate.
- Carefully remove the carrots from the oven and arrange on a bed of lentil salad. Drizzle with yoghurt sauce, sprinkle with fresh parsley and serve garnished with pomegranate seeds and pistachios.