lentil and cous cous salad with a soy, ginger and lime dressing

I love cous cous, especially whole wheat cous cous and lentils are always a good thing.  I do prefer using dried lentils and cooking these from scratch, but for this I had a tin lying in my cupboard so thought I would just use that.

To give the salad some nice texture and flavour, I chopped up what suitable fresh ingredients I had available in my fridge. There are no rules here.

I thought the dressing from this delicious Pret a Manger, Oriental Noodle salad recipe would work well, so this is what you need to make it:

Cous Cous:

• 200gms cous cous (I used whole wheat)
• 350ml water or stock (I used a veg stock)

Pour the boiling water or stock over the cous cous, cover and allow to stand (about 10 minutes) until all the liquid has been absorbed and then fluff up with a fork and cool.

Salad:

• I tin of lentils – rinsed and drained
• 1/2 red onion finely chopped
• 1/2 red or yellow pepper finely chopped
• 1 celery stalk finely chopped
• a wedge of cucumber chopped into small pieces (about 3/4 cup)
• a few spring onions sliced (as many as you like)
• a handful of mung bean sprouts (add a lovely crunch)
• a handful of mange tout cut into thin pieces
• small handful of fresh coriander chopped (leave some leaves whole to spatter over the top)

Dressing:

• 4 Tbsp sesame oil
• 2 Tbsp soya sauce
• 2 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon or lime juice
• 1 fresh garlic clove crushed
• 1 tsp freshly grated ginger
• 1/2 tsp chopped green chilli
• 1 Tbsp honey (if I am measuring honey and oil, I always pour the honey after the oil, that way it just slides off the spoon

How to make:

• Toss all the salad ingredients into the cooled down cous cous and add the drained lentils
• Mix all the dressing ingredients and toss through, scatter coriander and serve