lentil salad that'll drive you wild

I have a horrible habit: when someone is driving like an idiot I like to cruise by and get a good look at them after their infraction.  I want to strip them of their anonymity and get an eyeful of Unconscious Personified.  I might also throw a little contempt their way.  And maybe a head shake of disdain.  Isn't that awful?  

Inevitably (since I'm not a hateful person) I feel horribly regrettable afterward, and then a passage from my favorite meditation book flashes before my eyes.  It's all about how your entire life should be your spiritual practice.  Not just during meditation or yoga or when it's easy.  

When I read that for the first time I thought: Oh, crap.  Driving.  

I should be given a smidgen of slack since I live in L.A.  This city does have the worst traffic ever.  That said,  I'm now publicly vowing to be a better, more patient person behind the wheel.

After a long day of driving driving driving, when I can't bear to get back in the car and go to the market for dinner groceries, I launch a hard-core foraging session in my kitchen to see what I can possibly fashion out of what I have on hand.  Sometimes this backfires miserably (Chicken Scampi on Brown Rice Penne, anyone?) but occasionally I hit the jackpot.

Like with this lentil salad.

Lentil Arugula Salad

3 cups cooked lentils (I used a package of pre-cooked ones from Trader Joe's)

3 green onions (white and light green parts and a bit of the darker green), finely chopped

1 1/2 stalks celery, finely chopped

2T mint, finely chopped

2T parsley, finely chopped

juice of 1 small lemon

3-5t red wine vinegar

2-3T extra virgin olive oil

2 big handfuls baby arugula

salt and freshly ground pepper

Combine all ingredients and season to taste.  The precooked TJ's lentils are salted so take care not to overdo it.  Taste as you go and add more vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper if needed to your taste.  Serve chilled.

Hopefully like me, you have everything on hand and will not have to make your way into hateful traffic.





Happy Thursday:)

xoxo
jolie