I hope you're having a great day!

You don't always have to wait for week to enjoy a delicious pickle; a couple of hours will do. There's the possibility of making quick and easy pickles that can brighten up mealtime, especially if you want to eat something healthy after a day of overindulgence 🙈

Pickled lentil salad is a favorite for my sisters and me; we each have our own recipe. For example, my eldest sister adds celery and a little mustard; I love it.. Eating lentils regularly helps us maintain a low-fat diet and good heart health. In addition, a plate of lentils may be a light meal, but it will sustain us for hours, which is perfect to keep blood sugar low and stable. Add vegetables, vinegar and citrus fruit juice to quick pickle them, and we'll get one of the healthiest, easiest to digest, and most delicious meals ever.

Apple cider vinegar also helps us reduce sugar in our blood, and contrary to what many believe, it does help us reduce heartburn. White vinegar is also excellent for our blood sugar. Fresh lemon juice aids in digestion, and so does fresh orange juice, which is also rich in vitamin C and antioxidants.

I didn't use any balsamic nor olive oil this time, but you can add them and make it a delicious vinaigrette. I'm a vinagrette lover.

Some fun accompaniments to vinaigrettes and quick pickles are spicy nachos and fried foods. The latter can be omitted, or you can eat just a few if you don't want to put on weight. Today I made some potato fritters with freshly cracked black pepper and fried some slices of ripe bananas that were getting too ripe. I also had an avocado in the fridge that was ready to eat. So I had no difficult decisions to make for the dinner menu. Although fried foods are not ideal for dinner, you have to understand me: it was movie night at home and one has to spice it up a little 😁

INGREDIENTS

For the mixture of fruit & vegetables:

• 1 cup lentils cooked in water with a pinch of salt and a clove of garlic, drained.
• 1 cup finely chopped red onion
• 1/2 cup finely chopped red bell pepper
• 1 cup finely chopped tomato
• 1/4 cup finely chopped sweet chili pepper
• 1 cup chopped spring onion
• 1 cup chopped parsley
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• A handful of walnuts

For the brine:

• 1/2 cup fresh orange juice
• 4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons freshly crushed garlic
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• white vinegar to taste
• 1 tablespoon cane sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

For the black pepper potato fritters:

• 2 medium size potatoes, shredded
• Freshly cracked black pepper to taste
• pinch of salt to sprinkle on top after cooked

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QUICK PICKLE 😁

Obviously, I start by washing vegetables and fruits well.

I buy Pantera lentils, which come ready to cook. However, I wash them under the tap and put them in the pot where I'll cook them and add enough water to cover them. I also add a clove of garlic, crushed and unpeeled, plus a little salt. I cook them on full heat for about 10 minutes and then drain them well in a strainer.

After the lentils are well drained, which happens very quickly, you will see that there is a delicious hot broth in the pot; my recommendation is that you add a little bit of spring onion and cilantro and drink it while cooking. ❤️

While the lentils cool, I prepare the brine. Squeeze the oranges and lemons to get the desire amount of juice.

Add the apple cider vinegar. And add some sugar to balance the flavor.

With the help of my old mortar and pestle, I crush garlic cloves well. The I add the salt and juice into the mortar and mix everything well.

Now the pickle juice is almost ready, which means it's time for me to correct the level of acidity I prefer by adding white vinegar.

Once I have the lentils in the fridge getting cooler and the pickle juice also in the fridge, it's time for me to chop, chop, chop.

I peel and finely chop the red onion.

In order to get all the sweet from the red bell pepper, I remove the veins and seeds.

Then I finely chop the sweet chili peppers, tomatoes, parsley, and cilantro.

The taste we perceive in food also depends to a large extent on what we see and smell. The way we cut and process them modifies their appearance and aroma. Personally, I like to find different shapes, colors and textures in my food, especially in salads. It seems silly, but this thought is what makes me stop sometimes and decide to cut spring onions beveled instead of opting for the conventional slicing.

I mix everything together and add the pickle juice.

Then I can add the lentils and check the flavor.

We pickle and vinaigrette lovers know that we should always have glass containers that we can cover tightly. I chose one that turned out to be very small, with only a liter and a half capacity. So then I had to use a larger one, with a 3 liter capacity, to be able to mix the vegetables, fruits, and pickle juice well.

Quick pickled lentil salad ready to go!

I've saved some spring onion, parsley, and cilantro for garnish.

Time to make shredded potato fritters!

This is super easy. I'm not using any cornstarch.

I just peel the potatoes.

Shred them.

Squeeze and drain them.

Then I take a little bit, as much as will fit in my hand, and press it between my palms to make it as tight as possible. I fry the in hot oil. The more we squeeze the shredded potato the crispier the fritters.

I also press the potatoes against the hot pan with the back of the spatula to make the fritters firmer.

Time to eat!

I stir the salad once more, so that all the pickle juice soaks in, and serve a little in each bowl.

I add the spring onion and herbs for garnish and add as many crushed walnuts as I like. I do these two steps just before serving, each time.

I put one or two fritters in each bowl.

And that's it. You can see that I have also served fresh avocado slices and fried plantain slices to fill a platter that would make anyone happy here in my hometown.

How about you? Do you like pickled salads?

I hope you have found this recipe useful 😁

Bon appetite!

All text and images are my own. I have taken the pictures with my Redmi 9T cell phone. And if any GIFs here, I've used GIPHY for all them.

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