Black Lentil Cauliflower Mushroom Salad

Most nights I have been eating salad for dinner, but after a while, it can get boring having the same salad multiple times a week. That’s why I decided to try something different with this Black Lentil Cauliflower Mushroom Salad. (Say that three times fast!) It’s full of new, exciting flavors and doesn’t require many ingredients. Just know that it is a little bit of work to prepare it as you must cook each ingredient separately. And I also know you might want to avoid all this work with it being summer and all, but trust me, that this salad is really worth the effort!

The ingredients for this salad include black lentils, cauliflower, mushrooms and lettuce or other green leaves that you prefer. While making the salad, I tried it with arugula leaves too and it was delicious. For the sake of styling the pictures and making the salad look pretty, I placed the lettuce under the other ingredients in the bowl. Before having the salad, just cut the leaves into small pieces - there’s no need to style it as I did. For the dressing, you will need olive oil, date syrup (silan), lemon juice, salt and pepper. You can switch the date syrup to maple syrup or agave if you don’t have any silan (you can also use honey but then the recipe is not vegan anymore).

To make the salad, start by cooking the cauliflower in boiling water to make it tender. Then you need to roast the mushrooms in the oven and also cook the black lentil in water too. As I mentioned already, each ingredient must be cooked separately since cooking times and methods for each one are a bit different. If you want, you can also prepare all of the cooked ingredients ahead of time and leave them in the fridge overnight. Then you assemble the salad when you want to have it, mix the dressing in a bowl and drizzle over the cooked vegetables and green leaves.

The cauliflower is cooked to your preferred tenderness, I like it very soft and falling apart, if you want it more crunchy then cook it for a shorter time instead.

This black lentil, cauliflower and mushroom salad is very filling thanks to the lentils.

Black lentils are also called sometimes beluga since they look like beluga caviar. Don’t you worry though, this recipe is vegan and doesn’t include caviar. This lovely salad can fit as a side dish on any dinner or BBQ or other big meal. It can also be your main dish since the lentils contain fibers and protein and are considered very healthy and filling.

The 9 days before 9th of Av are here this weekend and you might be wondering what to eat. Since my blog is vegetarian, practically all of my recipes can fit but this one is a great fit because the lentils are a great filling protein source.

Regarding the mushrooms, I choose to roast them in the oven and not sauté on the stove top. Either way is good for this salad. I shared on the blog in the past a sautéed mushroom recipe and you can use it for this salad. If you like raw mushrooms it can work too. I prefer cooked mushrooms since I find they have more deep flavors after cooking.

If you want, you can also add more raw vegetables like cucumber, pepper, or nuts to get more crunchy bites.

The dressing is pretty simple and has sweet and sour flavors that combine perfectly with the cauliflower lentils and mushrooms.

For more salads, check out my salad recipe index.

Here is the recipe for this yummy black lentil cauliflower and mushroom salad: