This warm lentil salad is a heart and stomach warming dish with a brilliant depth and intensity of flavour. The lentils and beetroot give it an earthiness which is then balanced out with the spinach, roast veggies and glaze. It’s also a great way to use up any leftover roast veg if you want a quick and easy version.
And the reason for making this – having friends over for dinner after a run, I needed something that doesn’t require a lot of complicated measuring and this hits the bill. I made the balsamic glaze the day before. I hadn’t made it before so thought I’d give it a shot. It does take a while to reduce down so if you don’t have the time, it’s easy to find in supermarkets.
Any left over will last in the fridge for a couple of days.
Serves 6
Balsamic Glaze
1 cup Balsamic Vinegar
½ cup water
¼ cup brown sugar
- Put all the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to boil. Reduce to a simmer, stirring frequently.
- It’s done when it’s thickened to form a glaze. Take off the heat and let cool.
- Once cooled, if you’re not using it immediately, store in a glass jar in the refrigerator.
The Salad
About 75 to 100g goat’s cheese per person
2 cups Puy Lentils or Green Speckled Lentils
200g baby leaf spinach
Salt and pepper
Parsley
4 or 5 cloves of smashed garlic
Sprinkling of vegetable oil for roasting
Selection of vegetables to roast. For this I used the following but use those veggies that you love.
Tray 1 – beetroot, small potatoes, parsnip, red onions – chopped into large chunks
Tray 2 – carrots (cut lengthwise into half); small tomatoes; red and yellow pepper (deseeded and chopped into chunks)
Tray 1 ingredients tend to roast fairly dry; Try 2 are with vegetables that go have a higher water content, hence are better roasted separately.
- Preheat oven to 200°C/400°F/gas mark 6
- Have 2 cooking trays and put a little oil at the bottom of them
- Put the veg on the trays, add a little more oil, some salt and pepper, garlic and parsley and put in the oven. Turn after about 20 mins or so. Cook until done and then drain on some paper towels to get rid of the excess oil. Once cooled a little, chop into bit sized pieces.
- Cook the lentils as per instructions in salted water. Once cooked, drain over the spinach which will gently wilt it.
- Put the lentils with the wilted spinach, chopped roast veggies and sliced goat’s cheese into a large serving dish. Stir gently until mixed.
- Dress with the balsamic glaze and serve.
This is great served with some fresh crusty bread and butter.
Enjoy!