French Lentil & Beet Salad

This lentil and beet salad calls for raw beets, however, you could also buy pre-roasted beets to help save on time and clean-up.

Ingredients

Salad:

1/2 cup Puy lentils, dry

1 cup water

1 bay leaf

4 medium beets (I used 2 red and 2 yellow)

1/3 cup crumbled goat cheese

1/4 cup red onion, thinly sliced

1 handful parsley, roughly chopped

1 small handful chives, minced

Vinaigrette:

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 clove garlic, crushed and minced

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Begin by roasting the beets. Wash and loosely wrap each beet in aluminium foil and roast in the oven for 1 hour until beets are tender.

While the beets are roasting, add 1/2 cup of Puy lentils and 1 cup of water to a pot with a bay leaf and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes until lentils are soft but not mushy. You are looking for them to still have a little bite to them.

Once lentils are cooked, strain any excess hot water, rinse well with cold water and set aside to cool.

Once roasted, remove beets from the oven allow beets to cool, leaving the foil on.

While the beets and lentils are cooling, prepare the dressing. Add all of the ingredients to a jar or bowl and whisk until well combined.

Once cooled, gently remove the outer skin from each beet, it should pull off easily when they are roasted.

Once the skin is removed, cut roasted beets into cubed bite size pieces.

Once beets and lentils have cooled completely, add them to a large bowl to prepare the salad.

Add sliced onion and toss to combine with the beets and lentils. Drizzle in the dressing and toss to ensure everything is well coated.

Add crumbled goat cheese and fresh herbs, season with salt and pepper to taste, and give it one last toss before serving.

Enjoy!