Ute cooks:BEETROOT,LENTIL AND FETA SALAD

For those of you who haven’t heard me moaning yet –I am in exile in Wales (no,not Cardiff,somewhere VERY rural) for a few months and I miss London! I am suffering from a restaurant and culture cold turkey and if I don’t get my fix soon I see terrible things happening…

So,there are no restaurants to talk about were I live,or rather exist,now and I am finally sick of Innocent Vegetable Pots. The food in the canteen is basically inedible and I was thinking of taking a couple of pictures of the stodge they serve here,so that not only my appetite is spoiled (I take care of my readers ).

Taken all of this together I have decided I have to start cooking now. In seriousness. And indeed I made a very decent (and very easy) salad today which I think was good enough to post about it. Was it really good or was it just good for Wales and my standards are already dropping I cannot answer,but judge for yourself.

BEETROOT,LENTIL AND FETA SALAD

Serves:

• 4 as a starter,2 as a main

Cooking time:

• 20-30 minutes

Ingredients:

• 150 g cooked beetroot
• 150 g green beans
• 150 g red lentils
• 1 shallot
• 1 clove of garlic
• 2-3 TS of olive oil
• Balsamic vinegar to taste
• lemon juice of 1/2 lemon
• 100 g feta cheese
• some rucola (I only had some leave salad mixture but would have been much better with rucola)

1. Rinse the red lentils in plenty of cold water and drain. Then boil for 5-10 minutes in water,until they are just about tender,but still firm.

2. Clean the green beans and cut into ≈2-3 cm pieces. Cook in boiling water until they are just tender.

3. Prepare the vinaigrette: heat some olive oil in a pan and fry thinly sliced garlic and onion for about 1-2 minutes until golden.

4. Put this mixture in a bowl and add balsamic vinegar,salt,pepper,cayenne pepper and lemon juice to taste. Mix properly.

5. Cut the beetroot into 0.5-1 cm cubes and mix together with green beans and lentils

6. Add half of the vinaigrette and toss.

7. Arrange rucola on a plate and add the beetroot/lentil mixture in the middle. On the top,distribute cubes of feta

8. Finally,drizzle the rest of the vinaigrette over salad.

So,what shall I cook next?

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