Loaded Lentil Salad

8 December, 2016 67 Comments

This hearty Loaded Lentil Salad is packed with protein, fiber, and warm veggies like roasted sweet potatoes, red onion, and Brussels sprouts. Perfect for a light lunch! Vegan and gluten-free.

Don’t you just hate when a personal chef arrives at your doorstep?

THE WORST.

Not! I mean that’s basically what HelloFresh is, right? Like yeah sure, go ahead and pick some healthy and delish recipes and while you’re at it, go grocery shopping for me and oh yeah, bring it all to my apartment afterwards. You shouldn’t have!!

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If you haven’t heard, HelloFresh is the largest online “meals at home” food delivery service. Their chefs and in-house dietitian create tasty 30-minute meal options that make up the different Veggie Plan, Classic Plan, and Family Plan box options. All the pre-measured ingredients and recipes are boxed up and shipped right to you. They work with a handful of local suppliers, something that’s super close to my heart ever since opening Alchemy!

You guys. The Veggie Plan is my jam. The three meals per box ring in at under $10 a piece, including free shipping. When you think about the time you spend perusing Pinterest for recipes plus the grocery store trip, the convenience factor here is like WOAH.

Today I want to chat with you about customizing these lovely meals. While they don’t have a strictly vegan or gluten-free option, the meals are super easy to adapt to your tastebuds or intolerances. The box I received had ingredients for the following meals: Loaded Lentil Salad, One-Pot Tortellini Wonder, and Red Rice Bowl.

Now let’s talk customizations!

As they stand, the Veggie Plan is 100% vegetarian. But what if you have allergies? What if you avoid gluten? Not a problem, my friends.

First off, when the recipe calls for sautéing in butter, feel free to swap in extra virgin olive oil. Did you know there’s a big difference between regular olive oil and extra virgin?

The Loaded Lentil Salad is completely vegan, nut-free and gluten-free by simply leaving off the feta.

The Red Rice Bowl is vegan, nut-free, and gluten-free as long as you omit the eggs. The One-Pot Tortellini is a classic vegetarian pasta dish that inherently contains cheese and gluten. The boyf gobbled this one up!

If you’re game for some major substitutions, you could always use the garlic, kale, veggie stock concentrate, and panko and whip up your own version of cheezy pasta using almond milk, nutritional yeast, cashews, pesto, and pasta of your choice. With this one, you’re pretty much adjusting the entire recipe but if that’s in your comfort zone, go for it!

I really, really appreciated how easily adaptable these meals were. Plus, when you spend so much of your time creating recipes, having all the ingredients delivered with pre-set recipes is pretty much the best thing ever. They also have a big online archive of all the recipes so if you got one that you were obsessed with, you can make it again at home any time!

This Lentil Salad is one of those meals that tastes even better the next day.

It’s dreamy warm and dare I say even dreamier cold? As far as nutrition goes, this guy boasts a whopping 24 grams of plant-powered protein and 16 grams of filling fiber per serving plus phytonutrients galore! Hubba hubba.

Now for the fun part! For first-time customers, you can enter the code HUMMUSAPIEN35 at checkout to receive $35 off your first HelloFresh box! If you’re already a fan, you can also gift a box to a loved one for the holidays.

You didn’t think I’d rattle off Loaded Lentil Salad without giving away a FREE box of three meals to one of you lovelies, did you?! This giveaway is open to US residents only and will end Friday, December 16th at 12:00pm EST. The winner will be notified via email.

TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY:

Like Hummusapien + this post on Facebook.
Check out the HelloFresh blog.
Leave a comment on this post telling me about an article that inspired you + why you’d love to win!

Good luck, lentils!!!