Smile-Inducing Green Bean and Wild Rice Salad

This salad is so good that the first bite made me smile like a mad woman and be like "ARE YOU SERIOUS?!" All this despite the fact that I've been in a terrible mood the last couple days.  Also, the salad was still in a weird lukewarm stage but it was still mind-blowing. Plus it's awesome because it has tons of protein to keep you full and vegetables to make you feel like you're doing a good job with your life. The recipe is not at all hard, but I wrote out all the steps because I didn't want to assume everyone knows how to blanch green beans or cook wild rice and lentils.

the finished product!

First off, start the things that will take awhile: we want about 4 cups of cooked wild rice and 2 cups of cooked lentils. You need 3 cups of water to cook each cup of wild rice. I used a rice cooker so I wouldn't have to worry about it, but the stovetop is just fine. You know the wild rice is done when it splits open. The exterior of the rice is dark (blackish) and the interior is noticeably lighter, so it will be easy to tell when the wild rice splits. To end up with 2 cups lentils, you need to simmer about 3/4 cup dried lentils in about 2.5 or 3 cups water for about 20 minutes. Taste a lentil to make sure it's tender, then drain the remaining water.

The vegetable component of the salad is 2-3 cups blanched green beans, cut to be bite-sized. Wash and trim 2-3 cups green beans while you wait for a medium pot of water to boil.  Once the water boils, throw in half the pile of beans to blanch them. The goal is to cook them just for a minute or two to make them tender but crisp. After a minute passes, take one out, run it under cool water, and taste it to see if the texture is right. Once they're ready, quickly remove them from the boiling water (I used a pasta spoon with big slots to scoop out the beans) and throw them in a big thing of cold water. This will prevent overcooking and will preserve the perfect texture! Then, repeat with the other half of the beans. Alternatively, you could use a big pot and do all the beans at once, but I didn't want to wait for a humongous pot to boil. Once the beans are cool, cut into bite-size pieces (1 to 2 inches).  At this point, I combined the beans and lentils into the rice pot.

Make your dressing in a large container  that seals and doesn't leak.  I used a 2.5 quart container and the entire salad just barely fit.  To make the dressing, whisk together:

• 1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (seriously, use the nice stuff)
• 1 clove of garlic, crushed
• 1/4 cup almond butter
• a little hot water to thin it (I used 1/4 cup)

Here's a hint to accurately measure the almond butter without making it all stick to the measuring cup: first fill your 1/4 cup measuring cup halfway with olive oil.  Once the dressing is ready, combine everything into the large container, seal the lid tightly, invert the container, and shake it to distribute the dressing.  Refrigerate. Serve with or without crumbles of goat cheese.

I adapted this recipe from Heidi's 101 cookbooks recipe by substituting the asparagus for green beans and the split peas for lentils. An additional tweak to the recipe was doubling the lentils. I didn't intend to do this; I just cooked too many lentils and figured I might as well use them rather than eat them plain. The lentils blend right in with the rest of the salad, so I don't think it matters whether you use 1 cup or 2 cups of lentils.