Lentil salad with tomato, cucumber and pepper

For the days of excessive heat, what better than a fresh salad? The good thing about this lentil salad with tomato, cucumber and pepper is that we can continue to eat legumes and benefit from their properties without having to eat them hot.

Lentils are one of the legumes that has the most iron, but it is vegetable-type iron, which means that the body has a harder time assimilating it on its own. Tomatoes and peppers are rich in vitamin C, even more so if they are raw. This vitamin is a helper for assimilation of iron in the body, so this dish, in addition to being refreshing, is ideal for the intake of this mineral.

Ingredients:

(For 4 persons).

• 1 jar of cooked brown lentils (500 gr.).
• 1 medium green bell pepper.
• 1 cucumber.
• 1 large tomato
• 1/2 medium spring onion.
• 1 teaspoon of ground cumin.
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil.
• 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar.
• Salt to taste.

Preparation of the lentil salad:

We drain the jar of lentils for a while with the help of a strainer, so that they release the canned liquid well. As well we can choose to cook the lentils ourselves. For this, we will need 250 gr. of dried lentils, since when cooked they double their weight and volume. If we have a pressure cooker, they will be ready in about 20 minutes.

While the lentils are draining, we will cut the vegetables. We wash the green pepper and peel the cucumber and tomato. We cut these three very small diced elements. We remove the stem and the first skin of the chive and chop it very finely.

We put all the ingredients in a large container and mix. We season the salad with oil, balsamic vinegar and salt to our liking.

We will serve the salad cold. If we reserve it in the refrigerator about 15 minutes before serving it, we will get a very refreshing vegetable salad.

It can be a good a good companion for other dishes Or we can also enjoy it with a little Arabic bread, the pita type for example.