Puy lentil, orange & sunflower seed salad with walnut oil dressing
Walnut oil has a warm, rich, nutty flavour that works beautifully with the lentils, red cabbage and celery in this salad. For optimum health and taste benefits – including impressive plant-sourced omega-3, monounsaturated fats and antioxidants – look for a good quality cold-pressed walnut oil. This salad is also delicious with a smattering of crumbled Stilton or other blue cheese.
Ingredients
Serves 4
Prep: 15 minutes
Cook: 25 minutes
125 g/41/2 oz Puy lentils, rinsed
2 oranges
150 g/51/2 oz red cabbage, finely shredded
3 celery sticks, thinly sliced
2 spring onions, thinly sliced diagonally
100 g/31/2 oz baby kale leaves
2 handfuls parsley leaves, roughly chopped
2 tbsp toasted sunflower seeds
Dressing
4 tbsp cold-pressed walnut oil
1 tsp wholegrain mustard
1 tsp good-quality honey
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Cook the lentils in a pan of boiling water for 20–25 minutes or until tender, then drain well and leave them to sit in the sieve while you prepare the rest of the salad.
Meanwhile, peel the oranges and remove any white outer pith. Place them on a plate and cut between the membranes to remove the segments.
Mix together all the ingredients for the dressing, season well with salt and pepper. Taste and add more oil, vinegar, mustard or honey if needed. Add any juice from the segmented oranges.
Tip the lentils into a large shallow serving bowl and add the cabbage, celery and spring onions. Spoon over half the dressing and toss until combined. Add the orange segments, kale and parsley, toss gently and spoon over as much dressing as needed. Scatter over the sunflower seeds and serve.
