A warm, seasonal winter salad with lentils, roasted root vegetables and cabbage. The dressing is made with tomato concentrate and it uses a lot less oil than traditional salad dressings!
Serves 2
· 100g lentils (Hodmedod’s Olive Green or Coral lentils, available from Platt Field’s market garden are perfect. Any brown, green or puy lentils that will keep their shape will work)
· Rapeseed or Olive oil
· 2 cloves of garlic. Grated, minced or chopped very finely
· Tomato concentrate
· Fresh thyme
· 300g root vegetables (e.g. carrots, parsnips, swede etc.)
· Water
· Salt
· Pepper
· Stock powder (optional)
· Bay leaves
· Sherry vinegar (red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar are OK too)
· Savoy cabbage, green or spring cabbage, kale or any green leafy veg
VEGAN/GLUTEN FREE
For the root veg
1. Pre-heat the oven to 200°C
2. Peel the root veg and cut into bite-sizes pieces. Any size/shape is fine, if they are roughly the same so they will cook at the same time
3. Put on a baking tray with a little olive or rapeseed oil and season with salt and pepper
4. Bake in the oven for 30-40minutes (check every 10 minutes and mix the veg so they cook evenly) until soft and slightly golden.
5. Around halfway through baking the root veg, add the lentils
For the lentils
1. Wash the lentils
2. Put in a pan of cold water with a fresh bay leaf and a few sprigs of fresh thyme (if you have them)
3. Bring to the boil and simmer for 15-20 minutes until the lentils are soft- it may take a little longer
4. The water can be changed and refreshed halfway through if you like, but it’s not necessary
5. Drain the lentils. When the root veg is about halfway cooked, add the lentils (keep the root veg and lentils separated on the tray- or use separate trays)
6. Bake the lentils with the root veg, this will dry them out slightly and firm them up which will make for a better texture in the salad If cooking the lentils in advance, keep in the cooking water to cool and drain before baking
For the dressing
1. In a good saucepan or frying pan (non-stick or thick bottomed) add 2 tablespoons of olive or rapeseed oil
2. Before cooking, have a jug of water by the pan just in case
3. Add the minced garlic. Warm the oil up slowly. This will infuse the oil with garlic flavour and ensure the garlic doesn’t burn. Cook until the garlic starts to sizzle and brown
4. Meanwhile, pick about 1 tbsp of fresh thyme leaves ready to use. Dried thyme can be used, or leave it out
5. When the garlic is cooked, add the thyme
6. Then add 60g of tomato concentrate. On a medium/low heat, cook the tomato concentrate for 3-5 minutes until it becomes dark brown and drier. If it starts sticking to the pan, good- that’s flavour for later! If it looks like it might burn, reduce the heat and add a little cold water
7. When the tomato concentrate has cooked, turn up the heat and add a splash (about 20mls) of vinegar and let it bubble for a few seconds. This will ‘deglaze’ the pan and remove anything that was stuck to the pan
8. Move the tomato/thyme/garlic mix to a blender or small jug
9. Add 150ml of cold water to the pan and mix and scrape the sides- this is just to get any last bits of oil/tomato off the pan. Add the cold water to the tomato puree mix
10. Blend everything together. The tomato, oil and water should emulsify with the garlic and thicken the dressing. To make it a little thicker, drizzle a little more oil in while it blends
11. Now season the sauce with salt and pepper, to your taste. Stock powder can be used instead of some of the salt. Add more vinegar if it needs more acidity. The dressing will be used on plain-ish lentils and veg, so make the flavours punchier! The thyme can be replaced by other herbs, or try using spices (e.g. smoked paprika) for extra flavour)
For the salad
1. Shred the cabbage into strips and wash
2. Steam the cabbage until wilted and drain well
3. Mix the lentils, roasted root vegetables and tomato dressing together while warm and serve
If serving cold, keep everything separate until ready to eat