cherry tomato, lentil & feta salad

Now here is a quick and delicious salad that is not only refreshing and simple to make, but also quite filling.  Lentils are a great source of fibre and work really well in the salad together with the crunch of the sweet red onion, they add a wonderful texture to this salad.  I love serving it as a side for a BBQ or even in a wrap as an ideal lunch.

I have to say this was my favourite salad of last year and seeing as the sun decided to make its guest appearance today I thought it was a perfect day to share this with you.

Enjoy!

You'll need:

1 packet of cherry tomatoes

1 tin of brown lentils

1 red onion, sliced very thinly

1 block of feta

1 handful of parsley, coarsely chopped

1 Tbs good quality olive oil

1 Tbs balsamic vinegar

Method:

1) Slice the tomatoes, and mix in a bowl with the lentils, onions, parsley and crumble the feta over and season with salt, pepper and dressing (olive oil and balsamic vinegar).

Note: Feel free to add more tomatoes if you are making a bigger salad.

golden beetroot & feta risotto

Talk about having to climatise...  Having just returned from a long stint in sunny South Africa this snowy winter wonderland sure is an adjustment.  Coming from a land of salads and BBQ's, I had all good intention of carrying out the all healthy, all slimming January detox.  It soon became apparent that in this icy weather, we are still very much in need of warm comforting food and that's exactly what you can expect over the next couple of weeks.

Let the detox begin in February, where we'll 'Detox - the delicious way'!   There will be soups, curries, stews, bean salads, dips, healthy snacks and lots of herbal teas. 

But for now, here is a warm creamy risotto, using golden beetroot which you don't always find and feta.

Serves 4

You'll  need:

1 red onion, chopped
3 golden beetroots (roasted in foil to maintain their juices and diced)
1 slab of feta (to taste)
400g arborio risotto rice
300ml boiling stock
4 Tbs white wine
salt and pepper to taste
slice of lemon

Method:

1) Put oil in a pan and saute onion
2) Pour in the rice and coat with the onion and oil, then add the wine
3) Gently add the stock spoon by spoon, allowing all the stock to be absorbed by the rice before adding the next ladle, over medium heat for approx 20 minutes.  If you need to increase the amount of stock do so, until the rice is al dente, but not too soft.
4) Add chopped up feta and beetroot and let it cook through the rice.
5) Serve immediately warm and creamy, and squeeze a slice of lemon over and season with salt and pepper