Lentil Salad With Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Queso Fresco

Submitted by jessi_mcg

"From about.com, posting for ZWT 7, South America. This combines two of my favorite things, lentils and sweet potatoes! Recipe is credited to Marian Blazes, who says "Toss it all together and serve warm, adding a few baby spinach leaves for something green. This is a healthful salad that everyone will enjoy. " Servings are a guess...please help me if this needs correcting!"

 

• Ready In: 45mins
• Ingredients: 14
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• 2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1 red onion, coarsely chopped
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons Sazon Goya seasoning (or 1 teaspoon cumin and 1/2 teaspoon paprika)
• salt and pepper
• 1⁄2 cup lentils
• 2 cups water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1 lime, juice of
• 1 red pepper, diced
• 1⁄2 cup queso fresco
• salt and pepper

directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Toss the cubed sweet potatoes and the chopped red onion with 2 tablespoons olive oil, the SazonGoya seasoning packet, and salt and pepper.
3. Place vegetables in a roasting pan and roast, gently stirring every 10 minutes or so, until potatoes are starting to brown around the edges and appear slightly crispy. Let cool.
4. While potoatoes are roasting, bring the lentils to a boil in the 2 cups of water with 1 teaspoon salt.
5. Simmer lentils gently until tender, about 25 minutes.
6. Drain lentils well, and let cool completely. Place lentils in a bowl and toss with 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar, and the juice of one lime.
7. Stir in the sweet potatoes and onions, chopped red pepper, and queso fresco, and gently toss to mix. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Reviews

[zeldaz51]

Very good, but there is a tablespoon each of balsamic and olive oil unaccounted for in the recipe directions, so I just added them to the whole mixture. I used dry cotijo cheese, as that's what was in the fridge, and a generous handful of thinly sliced scallion for color contrast, as I had not red bell peppers. I used smoked paprika as well, and some extra lime juice. We had it with grilled Iberico pork tenderloin and longaniza sausage, and some steamed green beans.

 

[Chef Kate]

This is an excellent salad, though I am so glad I followed up on Parsley's suggestion re: cilantro. I mixed in a good bit and threw some more on top and the cilantro added just the right note. I also served it on a bed of baby spinach leaves. This was very good when freshly made, and (based on a very small amount of leftovers) also very good the next day, having absorbed the dressing. Thanks, SV!

 

[Larry Spaghetti]

Awesome! Made a great lunch, and we'll be making it again this week for dinner. We used a generous amount of smoked paprika, and the flavor was excellent. We liked the queso fresco, and this week we will try feta.

 

[*Parsley*]

Terrific, healthy and filling salad. I made this axactly as written. I did garnish with chopped cilantro, though, and next time I may mix it right into the salad. Queso Fresco went very well with this mixture. I should have doubled the recipe! Thanx for posting!

 

[Ana Gilbertson]

We are not a fans of sweet potatoes in our house so we subbed red potatoes. Although we liked all the flavors, I am not sure that was a good choice. Also when we cooked the potatoes the red onions didn't seem to cook very well along side them. Although we didn't really care for the way we did the recipe this is an interesting mix - worth a try.