Warm Green Lentil Salad with Sherry Vinegar, Mint, Dates and Goats Cheese Salad

We are so excited to introduce this new blog series, as cooking as always been such a big part of my life and I have such a passion for food. Especially when it comes to experimenting with new flavours and discovering the taste of different cultures!

For our first recipe feature I wanted to show you this one I have pulled from the lovely Claire Thomson @5oclockapron you will find her addictive as she makes everything look so easy and delicious. I just love what she does! Her book, 'Home Cookery Year' is great and is so splattered with interesting ideas on what do to with yummy ingredients - it honestly is a cookbook that you return to time and time again.

I love salads that are filling and mouthwatering, but also quick and easy to make so this is one I highly recommend. I especially hate spending a fortune ( money and time ) on something to eat when I am travelling to see my manufactures or a day spent in the workshop so this really does tick all the boxes. This is also an essential go-to-lunch-treat when we are doing our shows or shoots as it travels so well and won’t spill, not to mention it simply explodes your tastebuds.

Warm lentils are the best and this dressing is so sharp and sweet.

A top tip of mine is to use lots of mint and black pepper ( Goats Cheese and black pepper is a dream combination ) and invest in some Sherry Vinegar.. a little more expensive but it really won’t be the same without it!

When it comes to Mint...get a big bunch you are going to use the leaves as you would salad leaves. Bonus points if you have grown them at home, they are so easy to look after and great to get from the garden when you want to make a last minute meal like this!

Ingredients - Dressing: 

• 4 Fat cloves of garlic thinly sliced
• Around 80 mls of Olive Oil
• 60 g finely sliced dates
• Around 2 - 3 tablespoons of Sherry vinegar

Method

• Cook half a bag of green lentils.
• Add two cloves of garlic and 3 dried bay leaves.
• I also like to add a carrot or stick of celery or a sprig or two of parsley depending on what we have hanging around as it adds flavour.
• Add your cooked lentils to a large serving plate ( removing garlic and anything else you threw in the pot to add flavour! )
• Shower with chopped mint ( lots of it! )
• Add some roughly cubed goats cheese ( I used ½ a log ) to serve
• Add a splash more olive oil & plenty more freshly ground black pepper
• Also works with some fresh sourdough rubbed with garlic and olive oil! for the ultimate Summer Salad.

Watch

Claire has recently done this amazing video so you can easily follow her advice on how to make this wonderful recipe, I highly recommend checking this out if you are interested;

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cq5Zq3UIKro/?hl=en

If you do end up making this recipe, please tag us so we can see your wonderful creations and let us know what else you'd like to see from us in this new series.

We have even recently added a comments section below so you can leave any helpful notes / feedback!