Marinated lentils salad with courgettes

Light, nutritious and very tasty this salad will be appreciated and become one of your favourite dishes!

Slightly adapted from a recipe of Myrssini Lambraki,
a popular Cook and Cooking Books author
for a recipe leaflet of the Greek super market "AB Vassilopoulos"

Ingredients (for 4 people):
1 tea-cup of medium or coarse lentils
3 medium courgettes
2 tbsp of  spearmint, finely chopped
1 pinch of ground cumin
1 Spring onion, finely chopped (green and white part)
4-5 tbsp of olive oil
1 large lemon, the juice
½ tsp of lemon zest
salt
pepper

Method:

Boil the lentils in plenty of water until they are tender but not mushy. Transfer in a colander and leave to drain as much as possible.

Transfer the lentils in a large salad bowl and sprinkle with the cumin and some salt. Pour over 1 tbsp of the oil and half of the lemon juice. Gently stir, cover the bowl with cling film and leave in the fridge to marinate for 1-2 hours.

In a bowl, coarsely grate two of the courgettes and season with salt. Leave aside for 20 minutes allowing the courgettes to free their liquids. Drain very well squeezing the courgettes with your hands.

Transfer into the bowl with the lentils, add the Spring onion and stir with a spoon.

In a bowl (or a jar) put the rest of the oil, salt, pepper, the spearmint, the rest of the lemon juice and the zest and beat well to combine.

Pour the dressing over the salad and stir. Cut the third courgette into very fine sticks and blanch for 3 minutes. Drain in a colander, add on the top of the salad and serve immediately.