I made this for a meal with my daughters, and then made it again for a party, with variations, partly because I couldn’t remember what I did the first time. Essentially, it is a triple-decker salad with toppings and a dressing, so there are many ways you can play with the ingredients, flavours and textures.
INGREDIENTS:
- One butternut squash, peeled and de-seeded, cut into 2 cm cubes
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- A pinch of chilli flakes, e.g. Aleppo pepper
- 300g green lentils, such as puy lentils
- 300g brown rice
- 1 red onion, finely chopped
- 1 bunch of mint, finely chopped
- 4 tbsp toasted nuts, such as almonds, or walnuts, or pine-nuts
- Green salad leaves, such as lettuce, rocket, baby spinach, nasturtiums
- Dressing – 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp vinegar
- 1 tsp dijon mustard (optional)
- 3 tbsp pomegranate molasses
- Salt and pepper
- Non-vegan option – a pack of feta cheese
METHOD:
- Set the oven to a high temperature, 200C
- Mix the squash with olive oil, chilli flakes, ground pepper and a little salt. Put this into a large baking tray, and bake for around 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, soak the brown rice and the lentils for around 30 minutes in cold water, to hydrate a little, and to rinse off any extra starch.
- Drain the lentils and brown rice, and then cook in salted water for around 30 minutes. I mixed them together to reduce washing up, but ideally you should cook them separately as the rice might need a little longer than the lentils. Drain when cooked. You can add herbs to the water if you like, for example mint.
- Make the dressing. In a jar with a lid, mix together the olive oil, vinegar, mustard, molasses and salt and pepper, and shake well.
- Assemble the salad:
- Wash the salad leaves and make this the bottom layer. I like my lettuce very slightly salted, so you might want to try this yourself.
- Chop the red onion and mint and mix with the lentils and rice. Spread this over the salad leaves, leaving a border of leaves showing.
- Add the roasted butternut squash to the top, then sprinkle with the toasted nuts.
- Pour the well-shaken dressing over the top just before serving.
We had this at a barbeque and it went down very well.