Lentil and Rice Salad

I recently inherited the contents of my friend Annika's pantry (she left me for Chicago) and included in the bounty was a bag of lentils. What will I do with lentils? I thought to myself. As a kid I hated lentils so much I would cry if my dad made me eat them. A bit dramatic? Maybe.

Thankfully, the opportunity to use them and make other people eat them came up a few weeks later when I was invited to a pot luck. In an effort to save some money and use what I had on hand, I found this recipe on Epicurious. And, what do you know, it was actually delicious and quite pretty.

The vibrant chopped vegetables.

The boring lentil and brown rice mixture.

The marriage of bold and bland. Beautiful! (Sorry for the extreme closeup.)

Think of this as tabbouleh but with lentils and rice subbed in for bulgar. The textures and flavors in this dish are fantastic! The lesson here is that your five-year-old self shouldn't keep your grown-up self from going back and giving things a second chance.