When you’ve got leftovers in the fridge and you need to whip up a nutritious kick nice and quick, this hearty salad is the dish for you 😀

Making use of leftover rice and lentils, revitalised with fresh baby spinach, crunchy red onion, and tangy tahini sauce, this salad ticks a whole bunch of boxes and tastes sensational.

Here’s how to cobble together a sensational salad in under 5 minutes…

Flavour: Fresh and savoury

Serves: 2 as a light meal

Ingredients:

• 1 cup cooled, pre-cooked brown rice (see here for how to cook perfect brown rice)
• half cup cooled, pre-cooked brown lentils (see here for how to prepare lentils)
• 2 cups fresh baby spinach
• half a red onion, finely sliced
• half cup tahini sauce with lemon and parsley (see here for recipe, or below)
  • garlic paste
    • You can make either a smooth, raw garlic paste, or a mellow, roasted garlic paste – whichever fits best into your dish or your cooking routine – see here for tips on how
  • 4 tablespoons tahini
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • half teaspoon salt
  • generous sprinkle freshly ground black pepper
  • quarter cup chopped parsley

Directions:

Amateur tip: make sure you have your rice and lentils pre-cooked and cooled before you start. It’s also ideal to make the tahini sauce in advance, so you only have to toss together the ingredients, making this a super-simple treat whipped up from leftovers 😉

• Mix the salt and lemon juice into your garlic paste in a small bowl
• Mix in the tahini, and stir well, adding water one tablespoon at a time to get your mixture thin enough to pour slowly, but not runny
• Stir in the chopped parsley and as much freshly ground black pepper as you like
• Pop rice and lentils into a separate, large bowl, and stir together
• Add tahini sauce, and stir into rice and lentils
• Add finely sliced red onion, and stir in
• Add spinach, and stir in (you’ll have to add the spinach a little at a time to be able to get it evenly distributed through the rice and lentil mix)
• Serve immediately, either as a stand-alone light meal, or as a side