Lentil and Rice salad

I'm part of a quilt group that meets monthly and at the end of our morning meetings we have a pot luck lunch.

One of our members can't eat anything with wheat, so I've been trying to come up with recipes that she can eat too.

This one was what I took this month, and I really like it, so I thought I would share the recipe here.

Ingredients:
For Salad
3 cups water
1 cup dry lentils
1/2 cup long grain rice (note: I used basmatti, brown rice would NOT work here without serious cook time changes)
1/2 cup chopped red pepper
1/2 cup finely diced carrot
1/4 cup sliced green onion (or finely diced red onion)
1 cup diced tomatoes (I used a can of ready cuts)
lettuce leaves

For dressing
4 Tbls olive oil
4 Tbls lemon juice
2 tsp snipped fresh basil or 1 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp salt

Preparation:
Rinse and drain lentils.

Transfer lentils to a medium saucepan and add water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer with the lid on for 5 minutes.

Add uncooked rice, cover and simmer 15 minutes more.

Remove pan from heat and let stand for 10 minutes.

Drain, rinse with cold water and let drain again.

In large bowl, combine lentil/rice mixture, red pepper, carrots, onions and tomatoes.

For dressing, mix together in a jar or plastic shaker: olive oil, lemon juice, salt and basil. Shake well.

Pour dressing over salad, stir gently to coat.

Chill for 4 to 24 hours (like many of these kind of salads, it improves with time to "meld")

Serve on lettuce leaves (a romaine leaf with some of the salad rolled inside is a tasty "salad burrito")