Warm Roast Vegetable & Lentil Salad with Zahtar & Sundried Tomatoes
A few weeks ago I was busy creating, styling and photographing salad recipes for Vicki’s Spring Nourish Magazine, which has just gone to print. If you are fortunate to live in the Waikato or Bay of Plenty areas you will be familiar with their beautiful, almost organic feeling magazine with its quality mat paper that feels so right for promoting seasonal produce, farmers markets and vibrant food recipes. You can’t help but brush your hand across the pages when leafing through it, almost feels like the vegetables will spring out in your hand.
It was an interesting exercise preparing dishes for an edition a couple of months in advance when all the produce is not yet available, I really wanted to use asparagus…oh how I crave asparagus season which is still a few weeks away. instead I opted for beans, cauliflower and root vegetables which will carry us through from now until October. As well as this salad I made a Mexican Style Coleslaw which will be perfect for those burger and BBQ days, a Vibrant Three Bean salad and Cauliflower, Anchovy & Caper Salad for the magazine.
Ingredients
200g baby beetroot, peeled and halved
200g baby carrots, scrubbed and stalk removed
400g tinned lentils
4 sun dried tomatoes
Handful fresh parsley
Handful fresh coriander
1 tsp zaatar spice
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp olive oil
salt & pepper
Method
Pre heat oven to 180C
Drain the tinned lentils, then place in a large bowl.
Place the beetroot and carrots on a roasting tray and coat with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. keep the beetroot and carrot separate if you don’t want the beetroot to turn the carrots pink.
Roast for 20 minutes, they’ll still be a little crunchy, then add to the bowl of lentils.
Blend together the sundried tomatoes, parsley, coriander, zahtar, balsamic and olive oil to a thick dressing.
Add the dressing to the bowl with the lentils & roasted vegetables and mix through.
Season with salt & pepper to taste and serve warm or chill in the fridge to serve later cold.
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I am always looking for interesting things to do with lentils for a) my vegetarian sister-in-law and b) meatless Mondays (which actually are usually meatless Tuesdays for us, but doesn’t that sound silly?). Thanks for a great recipe!!
I like the sound of meatless Tuesday, so non conformist!
A splendid salad! Definitely my kind of food.
I love your pretty bowl.
Cheers,
Rosa
That looks beautiful!
This looks super yummy. I’m tempted to try it with puy lentils or even giant couscous. Don’t miss the asparagus too much, the carrots and beets look so comforting and autumny, just perfect for those of us in the UK right now.
This sounds like a perfect early-autumn-recipe! Good idea for dinner tonight…
I can probably make this with my late summer garden, how delightful.. and wonderful that your work is in print again, i shall ask my kids to watch out for it and grab me a copy if it comes out before december!.. c
Gorgeous! And easy too!
I love easy :o)
This looks a really useful recipe – which sort of dried lentils would you recommend using instead of tinned?
Hi Lucy, I would go for Puy lentils or the French Green lentils, both hold their shape well and are easily available in NZ. Don’t use split, they go too soft. Make sure the dried are soaked and then cooked till soft but firm before you combine them.
Oooh, this looks like such a hearty meal for a cold Fall evening :) Love lentils.
i like this – probably because it reminds me of something i made recently, a roast vegie salad with pebbly puy lentils and chickpeas! http://www.diginhobart.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/my-mona-roast-vegie-salad.html
Nice one. Love the colours and the photo.
Lovely salad – stunning colours. I love the bowl too actually!
Thanks Jemma, check out the Japanese crockery shops they have a lot of these types of bowls
We’re on a huge warm salad kick and really love the combination of roots and lentils. This salad looks so beautiful.
Share the scans of the magazine soon, I am excited to see your work
thank you Raymund, they just arrived today so I will get to it this weekend.
I make roasted veg a lot and lentils but have never thought to combine the two, how strange is that? Thanks for the inspiration it’s nearly Autumn here and those colours are so inviting. I really love the picture it feels so earthy and rustic I bet it looks gorgeous in that magazine, a perfect fit with the touchy feely paper!