Roasted Cauliflower Lentil Salad

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Cooked and roasted ingredients are the way to do fall and winter salads. Roasted vegetables like cauliflower become the feature instead of raw veggies and greens. All salads don’t require lettuce. This roasted cauliflower lentil salad makes the case for ditching the leaves and going for a base with more bite instead.

The salad has a fantastic mix of textures and flavors. As I always say, a good salad has variety. Besides roasted cauliflower and onions and lentils, this salad has olives, pistachios and fresh herbs. Lemon vinaigrette gives it something bright.

Lentil salads are filling and perfect for meal prep. Not all salads work for leftovers, but this one does. Since it has no lettuce, there is no risk of it getting soggy or wilting.

The Ingredients

This is what you need:

• Cauliflower: Buy a head of cauliflower and cut it yourself instead of precut florets. I prefer slicing it, so then all those flat sides make good contact with the hot metal of the pan and brown. 
• Black lentils are great for salads because they hold their shape when you simmer them. Lentils are part of the legume family—a cousin of beans and chickpeas. You can substitute with green lentils, also known as puy lentils. Do not use red lentils or yellow ones because they fall apart as they cook and are better in soups and stews.
• Red onions are not onions meant to fade into the background. The same cannot be said for white and yellow onions, which make more sense diced and sautéed in soups and sauces. 
• Olives: My first choice are pitted castelvetrano olives. These green olives are plump and firm. You can swap with kalamata olives or use a Greek olive mix.
• Pistachios give the salad nutty crunch. I recommend unsalted or lightly salted. You can substitute with chopped almonds.
• Parsley: For fresh herbs, I stir in chopped parsley.
• Lemon vinaigrette: The dressing is fresh and simple with lemon juice, garlic, whole grain mustard, olive oil, salt and pepper.
• Olive oil: You will need oil for roasting the vegetables and in the vinaigrette. Use extra virgin olive oil for the best taste.
• Kosher salt & black pepper season the dressing and the veggies for roasting. I also simmer the lentils in water and add a teaspoon of salt.

Optional Additions

You can make this salad recipe as written, or try one or more of these additions:

• Leafy greens: Go with chopped kale, arugula or baby spinach. This will also allow you to stretch the salad into more servings. Keep in mind that they will soften if you have leftovers.
• Hard-boiled eggs: Chop them and stir them in. 
• Cheese: Try crumbled feta, goat cheese or grated parmesan. 
• Chicken, shrimp or another protein: The Mediterranean flavors of this salad work well with roasted chicken, shrimp or salmon.

Serving

As mentioned, you can serve the salad as an entree. With lentils for a base, it eats like a big salad. If you do treat it like a side, pair it with soup. Its Mediterranean flavors will go well with tomato rice soup, Italian white bean soup or creamy chickpea soup.

Leftovers & Storage

You can store the salad in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to 4 days. If you don’t use all the dressing, keep it in a mason jar in the fridge. Let the vinaigrette sit out at room temperature for 15 minutes before stirring it and tossing it in the salad. The oil will harden in the chill of the fridge. 

Recipe Tips

• Keep an eye on the onions as they roast. If they’re browning too fast, use tongs to take them off the pan to give the cauliflower more time.
• If the cauliflower and onions look crowded on the pan, use a second baking sheet. They should be in a single layer, all making direct contact with the metal. If you do use 2 sheet pans, rotate them when you flip the cauliflower and onions.
• Don’t overcook the lentils. Similar to how you would think about pasta, the lentils should turn out al dente.