Beetroot & Butternut Salad

This is a favourite salad of mine.

It is hearty enough to fly solo but I always serve it with grilled lamb cutlets.

You will need:

250g baby spinach leaves
3 bulbs of medium beetroot
half a butternut pumpkin
2 bunches of fresh asparagus
100-150 grams of greek feta cheese
100-150 grams of pine nuts
extra virgin olive oil
lemon juice
white wine vinegar
salt and pepper

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (fan forced)

Rinse the spinach and spin any excess water off. Place on a large serving plate or in a salad bowl.

Give the beetroot a good scrub, top and tail and chop into pieces measuring roughly 3cm square.

Don’t get too hung up about the size, just make sure they are roughly the same so they cook evenly. Obviously, the bigger the pieces the longer they take to cook. (I don’t bother peeling the beetroot..but you may like to).

Peel and chop the butternut pumpkin into slightly bigger pieces than the beetroot as they cook faster.

Pop beetroot and butternut into a roasting pan, drizzle with olive oil and season. Put pan in oven and cook for roughly 45 mins.

Trim the ends off the asparagus and pop to one side.

Roast the pine nuts. I do this in a dry fry pan, keep an eye on them as you don’t want them to burn. Place to one side.

When the beetroot and butternut have been in the oven for 45 mins, throw the asparagus in the same pan, swish around and cook for a further 5 mins.

Before you add the other ingredients to the spinach, I like to splash in the white wine vinegar and squeeze in the lemon juice. I do all this to taste so tricky to give you exact measurements but I would figure the juice of half a lemon and a tablespoon or so of the vinegar

Now, add the beetroot, butternut, asparagus and pine nuts.

Crumble over the feta and drizzle about 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, season and hook in.

*Serves 4 but is great for two adults, with lunch sorted the next day*

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