Quinoa, Lentil and Beetroot Salad with Walnut and Feta

I created this dish when we received fresh beetroot in a fruit & veg delivery box at home. It had been ages since I prepared something with beets. I grew a bit tired of beets as I had quite a lot of them with staff meals at one of my previous jobs. I also generally am a bit of a messy cook and beetroot juice stains nicely.. This time I couldn’t really ignore the beets in my fruit & veg box, so I decided to try and create a simple but tasty salad with it. It was so tasty that I totally got my love back for this vibrant root veg.

I contemplated what would go well with the sweet and earthy flavour of the beetroot and decided on creamy and salty feta. I also generally like to add nuts or seeds to a salad for extra texture and always make sure we have a variety of them in the cupboards. I choose the walnuts.

This salad became a concoction of a lot of my favourite flavours mixed with an old acquaintance, the beetroot. Without further delay, let me share with you the recipe.

Ingredients

This dish serves 3-4 people.

• 450ml vegetable stock

• 90g quinoa

• 120g green dried lentils

• 4 medium sized beetroots, cooked and peeled

• 90g feta

• 50g walnuts

• Thyme

• Olive oil

• Pepper & salt

Method

• Soak your lentils in cold water for roughly 2 hours. Then drain the water and give them another rinse.

• Bring your vegetable stock to a boil and then reduce the heat to a gentle simmer. Add the quinoa to the stock and simmer for 5 minutes before adding the lentils as well. Simmer the quinoa and lentils for another 10 minutes until both are fully cooked. Drain excess liquid if needed and let it cool down.

• Cut the beetroot into big cubes and saute with a bit of olive oil in a hot pan. Add some fresh or dried thyme and salt to season.

• Add the beetroot to the quinoa and lentils and mix.

• Chop or break up the walnuts into pieces and dry roast them in a pan on a medium heat.

• Sprinkle the salad with the roasted walnuts and little chunks of feta cheese.

Enjoy!