A salad with familiar Indian flavors. Lentil and Tandoori Chicken Salad is comforting, delicious and just what you want when looking for a healthy meal. Replace paneer for a vegetarian version or tofu for vegan.
The Lentil and Tandoori Chicken Salad was actually a quick fix to use the leftover from a party. I am that weird person who always overcooks while hosting. When I am planning my meal, I can actually see that the food might be more but the fear that I might run out of food, that remote 1% possibility of it doesn’t let me reduced the quantity.
So one of the most morning after the party, when I found my fridge overladen with food I took random ingredients out. There was some tandoori chicken, some boiled lobia and channa which I had used for chaat. On a whim, I decided to mix those up, add some lettuce and chopped vegetables and serve it as a salad for lunch. And it was such a surprise to see everyone at the table loved it. I had to eventually make two more servings of the same salad emptying all the lentils and tandoori chicken in the fridge. I had a few friends who stayed over after the party so let me assure, it was a decent amount I had to make.
Post that I have made this salad many times, with a variety of lentils. Horsegram, lobia, moth beans, kala channa, dried soya beans and all them seem to work. But then a couple of weeks ago, I made it with fresh lobia and toor as I handful of them lying around in the fridge. And if it was possible, the salad became even better. It felt like I had hit a jackpot with this recipe.
So here is the recipe! Like I said you can use any lentils so make that choice depending on what you want. Use this recipe as a guideline like always and enjoy your salad.
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Lentil and Tandoori Chicken Salad Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup tandoori chicken sliced into bite size pieces
- 1 cup lentils of choice boiled or steamed, depending on whether using fresh or dry
- 100 gm mixed salad greens
- 1 small onion chopped
- 1/2 cup colored bell peppers deseed and chopped
For the dressing
- 2 tsp mustard oil (you can use vegetable oil)
- 2 tsp tandoori masala
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- In a small tadka pan, heat mustard oil. Switch off the heat and add tandoori masala, salt and lemon juice. Mix and set aside
- In a large bowl, mix together all the salad ingredients. Pour dressing over the top and mix gently
- Serve with naan crisps or toasted bread
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