I love having a salad for lunch or dinner, but I am always a bit relentless to actually call it a salad. For me, the word salad makes me think of an unhealthy, skinny, unhappy person, eating dull and tasteless lettuce with a diet coke on the side, slowly just deteriorating into his/her own unhappiness or something.

Okay, that is probably a bit overdone, but you get what I mean right?! I mean, the word salad just kind of has this negative vibe, or for me at least. So, that is also the reason why the title of this blog post isn’t simple salad, but simple veggie bowl. Sounds somewhat less boring in my opinion! Another trick I often use to make my salads veggie bowls more interesting and filling is by adding some whole grains and/or legumes and grilled veggies.

Simple veggie bowl
Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 20 mins
Total time: 25 mins
Serves: as lunch or dinner 2 servings, as appetizer or side salad 4 servings

Ingredients
2 full hands of lambs lettuce
2 full hands of arugula (rocket)
2 full hands of red swiss chard
150 grams pumpkin, diced
80 grams uncooked lentils
80 grams uncooked quinoa
big hand full of ripe cherry tomatoes
big hand full of sprouts of choice (I used purple radish sprouts)
good quality balsamic vinegar
juice of half a lemon
non-odeur coconut oil or olive oil

Instructions
1. Cook the lentils for about 20 minutes, or as long as they need (this depends on the kind of lentils you are using). Don’t cook them too long, as they will become mushy, and for in the salad you’ll want them to still be a bit firm.
2. Rinse the quinoa and cook them in a different pan for 10 minutes or until done. Also with the quinoa, don’t cook them too long.
3. Sprinkle the diced pumpkin with a little coconut oil or olive oil, and grill them for about 5 minutes. You can do this in your oven if it has a grilling mode, or in a grill pan. If you don’t have both you can also just bake them in a pan or in your oven.
4. Wash the lambs lettuce, arugula, red swiss chard and sprouts thoroughly, as there can still be some sand on the leaves or sprouts.
5. Wash the cherry tomatoes and cut them in halves or quarters.
6. For the dressing, mix the lemon juice with the balsamic vinegar. The ratio depends on the tartness of the balsamic vinegar you are using. Make sure to taste the dressing before serving!
7. Assemble the salad by adding the lambs lettuce, arugula and red swiss chard to a big salad bowl. Also add the cooked lentils and quinoa and garnish the salad with the cherry tomatoes, sprouts and grilled pumpkin. Serve with the lemon-balsamic vinegar on the side.

If you are eating the salad for dinner, or are very hungry, you can also add some avocado chunks to make it even more filling.