Name: 20 Minute Curry Red Lentil Salad
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 20 min
Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients: 2 cups split red lentils; 3 cups water; 1/4 cup chopped sweet onion; 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar; 1/3 cup raisins; 1/4 cup capers; 1/2 cup orange juice (preferably freshly squeezed); 1/4 cup avocado oil; 1 tablespoon honey; 1 1/2 teaspoons Dijon mustard; 1 tablespoon curry powder; 1 teaspoon cardamom; 1 teaspoon salt

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20 minute Curry Red Lentil Salad is full of big flavor – chewy lentils, sweet plump raisins, bright salty capers and a healthy sweet curry dressing.

It was a lovely sunny spring day when my world was almost shattered.

Reed and I were at the park with a tub of my absolute favorite deli salad of all time – a version of this Curry Red Lentil Salad. It was the first time I was introducing him to this longtime food love of mine. After his first taste, he proceeded to tell me this would probably be a three biter.

As in he would be done with it after only three bites?! The best salad of all time?! THREE BITES!!

This perfect salad with its chewy mild-flavored red lentils, plump juicy raisins, salty capers and sweet curry dressing. It is sweet, salty, citrusy, flavorful, everything-you-want-in-a-salad perfection.

It was then that I had to question my choice for a lifelong mate. If we couldn’t share the same taste in salad, what did we even have in common?

It was when I was deep in thought pondering this question that I realized my spoon was hitting the bottom of the plastic container. I see you Mister Three Bites. More like polished off the whole container!

Since that first rocky meeting, Reed has been asking for a homemade version of this lentil salad every single week. And to be clear, that was over 7 weeks ago.

This salad is irresistible.

Let’s take a closer look at the ingredients in our Curry Red Lentil Salad to find out why:

Red lentils – aka the creme de la creme of the lentil family. Mild in flavor, creamy in texture, cook up in 10 minutes.
Curry powder – not the spicy kind, the kind full of warm Indian flavors that make you feel like all is right in the world
Raisins – a sweet pop of flavor and a really nice lentil texture breaker upper
Capers – 100% weird in theory in this recipe. 100% delicious and necessary in real life. They add the perfect salty briny pop.
Orange juice – this dressing base adds a sweet citrus flavor without overpowering all the flavors
Apple cider vinegar – a nice acidic pop to bring out the flavors of the salad

Now that I know Reed and I are truly compatible, I have a new, even bigger, problem I hadn’t anticipated…. I now have to SHARE this salad with him!