This to me is pure heaven on a plate. Roasted butternut squash, carrot, with baby leaf salad and sous sous. This has become a go to meal for me these days. Butternut squashes are very in season now as are carrots. Very simple to make. Just cut up the butternut squash into bite sized pieces and along withe the carrots, drizzle olive oil over them and sprinkle sea salt over them and roast in a hot oven until you see the tips of the veggies begin to char. Couscous is even easier to make. One cup of couscous in a bowl and add one cup of boiling water and leave to stand for around five minutes. Then fluff with a fork. iv’e added cherry tomatoes, red onion and baby leaf salad to complete this recipe. Quite often I also drizzle some French dressing over the salad for even more of a flavour hit but it’s delicious on it’s own.
carrots
ROASTED CARROT & LENTIL SALAD WITH GOATS CHEESE DRESSING
Today I start a new article. I have been buying cookbooks for so long now that I have lost count of just how many books I have. Some books have been brilliant. Some okay and some quite frankly awful. My plan over the course of the month is to bring you recipes from one particular book then review the book as a whole at the end of each month. I will look at how easy it is to recreate the recipes and more importantly sticking with the theme of affordability with this blog, just how expensive my sample recipes cost me to make.
I am starting off this one with a roasted carrot and lentil salad with a goats cheese dressing. First of all what drew me to the recipe was the fact that there are only a few ingredients in the dish as a whole. Always a bonus here at Knobbly Plate. Next I looked at which meal it would fit into nicely and it seemed to me to be the perfect lunch dish. I also looked at how adaptable to the ingredients I had in the house at the time as to whether or not it would be possible to recreate the dish on a whim.
So what did I change about the recipe? first of all I did not have honey for the carrots so I made do without it. I did however drizzle some balsamic vinegar over them. Secondly instead of flatbread I had just made a loaf of honey and seed bread so I ripped up some of that. Other than those two things I pretty much followed the instructions.
How did it taste you ask? Well rather nice actually. I love lentils at the best of times and coupled with fresh organic carrots it made a wonderfully filling salad. So here is the salad with a big thank you toRiverford Organics not just for the veg but for the recipe from their book. Everyday & Sunday.
- ½ Red Onion
- 1 tbs Red Wine Vinegar
- 2 tsp Brown Sugar
- 1 Bunch of New Season Carrots
- 2 tbs Olive Oil
- 1 tsp Honey
- 3 tbs Cooked Puy Lentils
- 1 Garlic Clove Crushed
- 2 Pitta Breads
- Bunch Watercress
- 100g Goats Cheese
- 50ml Milk
- ½ Lemon Squeezed
- For the Salad
- Soak the red onion in the red wine vinegar and toss the carrots in olive oil and honey. Roast the carrots in a hot oven until soft.
- Toss the carrots with the cooked lentils, chopped red onion and crushed garlic.
- Rip the bread into small peices and toast in the oven for 5 mins..
- In a large bowl toss all the ingredients together along with the dressing and serve.
- For the Goats Cheese Dressing
- Gently heat the cheese with the milk until combined. Season with salt and pepper.
AFFORDABLE PESTO BUTTERBEAN SALAD
First of all, many thanks to Deliciously Ella for the inspiration for this recipe. She has an amazing food blog. I liked the look of her pesto butter bean salad right from the start but I also knew that with my tight family budget it was probably just a little out of the reach of my pocket so I set about making a few changes that would mean I would get to try this dish.
I think one of the main elements of her dish, the pesto was probably just too expensive for me to make fresh. Pine nuts and Parmesan cheese are quite expensive items to purchase. I know the cheese goes a long way but when you only have so much to spend in one week then you have to stick to that. I decided therefore that the first change to her recipe should be that I buy a jar of pesto. Now you can buy very cheap pesto which has little extra virgin olive oil in it or spend a little bit more on a jar that has better ingredients in it. Either way it will still be cheaper than making your own fresh pesto, though we would all love to have the fresh variety.
My second change to her recipe was to buy a packet of dried butter beans rather than tins of butter beans. I know they are a faff to prepare having to soak them overnight and boil them for what seems like forever but you rally do get so much more for your money. One 500g packet of butter beans will produce at least 10 portions for the same price as a single tin of ready made beans. I also bought a snack pack of pomegranate seeds for half the price of a single whole fruit and found it was enough to make the same dish again with or to use in another dish.
Finally I still had some organic carrots left over from my veg box scheme that I use from Riverford Organics so I decided to roast them and add them to the dish for two reasons really. First I felt they would add a sweetness to the dish that would contrast well with the other Mediterranean flavours and also if I’m honest I’m a hungry eater so I wanted more to eat for my evening meal.
All in all I think with these simple changes I have not compromised on the flavours of the dish and I reckon I have cut the cost of making the dish by at least half.
- 1 Jar of Green Pesto
- 100g Dried Butter Beans
- ½ Bag of Rocket
- 1 Lemon
- Drizzle of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 2 tsp Pomegranate Seeds
- 2 tsp Pumpkin Seeds
- 1 Lemon
- 6 small Carrots
- Soak the butter beans overnight and then cook according to packet instructions. Usually Boil for 10 mins and then Simmer for 30mins.
- Toss the butter beans in half the jar of pesto and set aside for 30 mins to let the beans take on the flavour of the pesto.
- Meanwhile quarter the carrots length ways and drizzle over some olive oil and roast in a hot oven until slightly charred.
- Mix up all the other salad ingredients and arrange on a plate.
- Top with the butter bean mixture and scatter the roasted carrots on top.
- Squeeze a lemon over the salad to dress and season with salt and pepper.