Cauliflower & Spiced Lentil Salad
- 2 medium (about 2kg/4lb) cauliflower cut into bite sized florets
- 4-5 tablespoons olive oil
- 250g/0.5lb Persian red lentils or Puy lentils
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon ground coriander
- 2 brown onions, finely diced
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 400g/14/13ozs low fat natural yogurt
- 1 cup baby spinach leaves
- 1 cup coriander leaves, finely chopped
- 1 cup mint leaves, finely chopped
- juice of 1 lemon
- salt and pepper
Step 1 - Heat oven to 200C/400F. Place the cauliflower on two baking trays and drizzle with oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast the cauliflower until golden and starting to crisp up at the edges-I took mine a bit further (unintentionally!).
Step 2 - Meanwhile, cook lentils in a large pot of boiling water (red and puy lentils don't need any pre-soaking) for about 20 minutes or until just cooked. Drain and rinse.
Step 3- In a dry frypan, heat the cumin and coriander until fragrant. Add some olive oil and saute the onion until golden and then add the garlic and cook for another couple of minutes. Add the spiced onion mix to the lentils while they are still warm.
Step 4 - Cool the lentil mix and cauliflower. Once cool, add the yogurt, baby spinach, coriander, mint, lemon juice and salt and pepper and add a drizzle of olive oil to help it come together. Toss gently to distribute.
Personal Note
Every now and then I get the chance to be interviewed by a journalist. They may be from a magazine, newspaper, radio or online publication and the conversation is always generally around food. As we're about to start summer, one of the more recent questions was about food trends. Predicting food trends is always slightly nerve wracking because they record your prediction or opinion and a part of you always wonders if it is going to come true. But I figure that I can just do a best guess and at the very least tell them about what the food trends are happening in my kitchen at least.
When I mentioned a few trends to the journalist she mentioned that others were in agreement but then I started talking about salads and vegetables and apparently I was a bit on my own with that. But for our household at least, we are currently going crazy for salads and vegetables.
So tell me Dear Reader, what do you think are the upcoming trends? And what are you loving in the kitchen at the moment?