, How to Video, Step by step

Warm roasted beetroot, lentil, and feta salad

A quick and easy to prepare, flavor-packed, vibrant, meat-free salad.

Mark Stower, Director of Food and Service

Preparation Time: 15 mins

Cooking Time: 30 mins

Serves: 4

Ingredients

Step 1

Place the beetroot, squash, parsnips, garlic, and olive oil into a large mixing bowl and season with salt and pepper. Combine all ingredients.
Step 2

Place the beetroot mix onto a baking tray and into a preheated oven Gas mark 4, 180°C, roast for 30 minutes, until golden brown and cooked through. Put to one side to cool slightly.
Step 3

To create the salad – place the cooked beetroot mix into a large mixing bowl and add the baby spinach and rocket leaves.
Step 4

Now add the puy lentils and crumbled feta cheese and gently combine.
Step 5

To finish, drizzle and mix in the pumpkin seed oil and adjust the seasoning to taste.
Step 6

Divide salad evenly into individual bowls and serve.

What a great way to start the year! Mark’s delicious recipe is absolutely packed full of different, nutritious plant foods.
Beetroot, squash, parsnips, spinach, and rocket all contribute important minerals, vitamins, and fibre. Squash, beetroot, and parsnips are full of potassium, and squash is particularly rich in carotenes, which the body converts into vitamin A.
Importantly though, all these vegetables contain loads of different phytochemicals – these substances all have different roles, protecting us in various ways, including reducing harmful inflammation. So the greater the diversity of different plant foods you are eating, the better it is for your body.
The puy lentils in this recipe are a great source of protein and fibre, as well as of iron and zinc, and an excellent substitute for traditional animal sources of protein. They are perfect in combination with the saltiness of the small amount of feta in this dish.
Each portion of this fantastic dish should provide you with at least two portions of your 5 A Day and is a taste of how you can go ‘plant-forward’ in 2023.

DR JULIET GREY, COMPANY NUTRITIONIST