House Salad: Quinoa, Lentils and Veggies with Sliced Steak

I eat a lot of salad. Like, a lot. And I don’t mean sissy little iceberg salads with a few tiny carrot shreds and a tomato slice or two — boring. I mean creative, flavorful and satisfying salads. Which, luckily enough, are just about as simple to make as their boring iceberg counterpart.

Which leads me to my new feature — House Salad — where I’ll post a new salad recipe/method based on whatever leafy creation I made that week. Because whoever said “you don’t make friends with salad” was wrong. You should make friends with salad. And I’ll show you how.

Quinoa, Lentil and Vegetable Salad with Sliced Steak

(recipe as listed below serves four, but can be adjusted)

What you need:

• Olive oil
• Salt and freshly cracked pepper
• Half a red onion, sliced
• Half an orange bell pepper, diced
• One small zucchini, diced
• 6 or 7 whole crimini mushrooms, cleaned and quartered
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 cup cooked quinoa
• 1 cup cooked lentils
• A handful of arugula

Optional ingredients:

• Any cut of red meat, cooked to your liking, sliced against the grain
• Crumbled blue cheese
• Balsamic vinaigrette (balsamic vinegar, olive oil, dijion mustard, salt, pepper)

How you do it:

1. Add a tablespoon or so of olive oil to a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the red onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned. Add the bell pepper, zucchini and mushrooms and cook, seasoning with salt and pepper, until browned — about 8 to 10 minutes. Deglaze the pan with the red wine vinegar, being sure to stir up the browned bits at the bottom of the pan.
2. Lower the heat to low, add the quinoa and lentils and cook until warmed through. Remove from the heat and stir in the arugula. Season to your liking with salt and pepper.
3. Top each portion with sliced steak, blue cheese and a drizzle of balsamic vinaigrette. (Optional.)