This one-bowl-wonder is full of bright greens, tummy soothing lentils, kale and beetroot that lend to a healthy and wholesome diet. I’ve not added any dressing as such to this as I wanted to keep it very low fat and extremely healthy, however I did give in to temptation for some extra creaminess by creating some low fat, garlicky Greek Tzatziki for a dip on the side.
I’m always trying to vamp up my salads, and this is a fantastic main course salad dish, that’s both gluten free and very low fat. For those of you that aren’t avoiding bread, then use this as a filling for an oven warmed pitta bread, as I do for my children, topped up with the tzatziki for an easy and filling lunch. It will also keep you full until teatime, so it’s a real winner for keeping those cravings at bay!!
This is meant to be a very easy dish to rustle up, so I use very good quality canned puy lentils and my favourite brine pickled beetroots in this recipe. Everything else is pretty much a larder staple and requires minimum preparation, so enjoy great living – great eating the Taste Safari way!!!
Serves 4
For the main
1 cup French beans, chopped into ¼”pieces
1 ½ cup good quality puy lentils, drained
1 cup kale / spinach washed and finely chopped
3 heaped tbs finely chopped sundried tomatoes
1 apple cut into small cubes
½ tsp finely cracked black pepper
3 tbs pickled beetroot, drained and washed under cold water , chopped finely
Salt for seasoning
1 tsp mustard
1 ½ tsp honey
1 tsp dried oregano
For the low fat Greek tzatziki
2 cups Low fat thick Greek yoghurt
1 cucumber, peeled and grated
2 fresh garlic cloves, finely chopped
½ tsp lo-salt
½ tsp freshly cracked black pepper
Juice of half a lemon
2 tbs finely chopped mint
1 tbs finely chopped garlic chive
1 tsp fresh oregano (if you can’t find fresh oregano, dried oregano will be fine)
Fill a saucepan with water 1/3 way up. Set to boil and place a colander over the pan. Add your French beans to this and steam for 7-8 minutes. As soon as you remove them, drain until cold water, toss around a few ice cubes to stop the cooking process and to retain the bright green colour of the beans– drain and set aside.
Whilst the beans are boiling, mix the honey into the kale/spinach working it through until the kale/spinach softens and wilts.
In a large mixing bowl, place the kale the puy lentils, the chopped apple, the beetroot, the sundried tomatoes, salt and black pepper, oregano and the mustard . Mix all of these gently, folding over, taking care not to smash the puy lentils.
To make the tzatziki:
Make sure you squeeze out all the water from the cucumber. Do this by squeezing the cucumber in the palms of your hands several times until you can remove as much water as possible. This is a really important step as you want a thick tzatziki so all the water from the cucumber must be eliminated.
Now simply mix all the ingredients together and keep in the fridge until you are ready to serve.
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