FriarChef S6 E18 | Lentil Salad

Today, FRIAR CHEF makes its way to the Mediterranean for a dish that is healthy, simple, and steeped in culture, Ikaria Lentil Salad!

Did you know that people from the Greek island of Ikaria have significantly longer lifespans than those in Europe and the Americas, often living well into their 90s or beyond? Plus, they have significantly lower rates of common chronic diseases, including cancer, heart disease, and dementia.

There is truly something magical about the Mediterranean diet!

Join Bro. Paul as he creates an amazing salad that is fresh, heart-healthy, and deeply nourishing. Just wait until you taste wholesome, plant-based ingredients that are so savory, they’re famous for dazzling as next-day leftovers.

[Music] Light that flame. Put on that oven. Put that apron on. And let’s get cooking. [Music] Hey everyone, welcome to Frier Chef. I’m brother Paul O’Keefee. I’m here today from the friy. So, as you can see, I am alone. Uh, my counterparts are all doing different things today. Father David is away. Father Frank, Father Michael is here in confession. So, mercifully is quiet on set. So, let’s get started. Today is a cold lentil salad. Um, and lentils are a really healthy legume. They are rich in iron, protein, um so if you’re looking for more protein in your diet, this is one way to get it with vegetable protein and all kinds of uh vitamins that are really healthy for you. Uh another feature of this is that there’s only one piece of it that’s cooked. All you need to do is cook the lentils. Everything else is uncooked and it makes for a really crunchy, delicious salad. So, first thing you want to do is start with, and this recipe is really based on for four people. It’s an accompaniment. You could make it a meal if you’d like, if you like lentils, but this is two cups of cooked lentils. Today, we’re using green lentils. You can use the red ones. You can use the gray ones, which is the most common in this country. So, you want to cook them, cool them, and drain them. Want to get as much water out as you can. Um, so these have already been cooked. And then into that we’re going to add some chopped olives. Whatever olives you like. Okay. Olives of your choice. Fresh red onion. You can use white onion. You can use scallions. You don’t have to have the onion in it if like me, you know, you have a bit of indigestion with onions. But if you like onions, in they go. Next, half uh a chopped cucumber. So, half would be about 1 and 1/2 cups. You can put as little or as much as you’d like. Uh again, with some people, the skins of cucumbers give them a little indigestion. Take the skin off. So, in go your cucumbers. This is a combination of red bell pepper, yellow, and orange. Again, any kind of pepper that you like. This is a very versatile recipe. Tomatoes. Tomatoes are kind of going out of season at this point, but we have here some little cherry tomatoes. You can emit this in the winter time if the tomatoes aren’t so good. You could even use canned tomatoes if you like the whole ones. Just drain them and make sure all the water is out. So, in go our tomatoes. Give it a little mix just to get it all together. And it’s really colorful and and uh delicious. Next, we want to put in our wet ingredients. So, we have here about a/4 of a cup of lemon juice. Okay, it’s not really that much. It may seem like a lot, but it’s going to be absorbed. And then we have here about a quarter of a cup of olive oil. You can use whatever oil you like. Uh I’m using olive oil because this is a recipe from Greece, but again, this is really versatile. You can kind of mix it up as you’d like. And then the last two ingredients before you plate it are fresh parsley and then I like a bit of fresh mint. You can use cilantro. You can use just parsley. You can omit this, but it just gives a little bit of um a bright kind of flavor. And again, everything but the lentils is uncooked. All right. So, the last thing you do when you plate it is just add some fresh um feta cheese. And again, you can omit the feta. You can put a different kind of cheese if you like. Um, that’s it. This is a very versatile, very simple recipe to make. So, as I mentioned, you can use this as a main course. Uh, especially if you’re vegetarian. Um, it’s a great accompaniment with meat dishes. We’re going to try a little bit now. I wish you were here to taste this cuz it smells so delicious. You just smell the mint coming through. So, let me see. That’s really delicious. It keeps well in the refrigerator for several days. So, here’s to you. Enjoy your lentil salad from Greece and make it your own. Hey everyone. Today we have uh several new items from the Franciscan store. Um we’re expanding our our line of um candle scents. So we have a new product that are um wax melts. Uh and they come in a pack of six and there are four new scents. Uh there is Olivan figzi sunset, Franciscan fur and myrr which is really wonderful. That was my favorite. And then lastly, Cyprus and myrrh. So, you can find these on our website. Um, I would encourage you, they’re one of our cheapest products. And if you like these different scents in your home, they make a wonderful addition to holidays or just if you’d like to perk up your home, try them. They’re really nice. [Music] Data. [Music] The [Music]