Roast pumpkin salad with lentils and honey-miso dressing
This big salad is perfect for spring dinners, picnics and barbecues
Ingredients
For the salad:
1 small (about 1kg) butternut pumpkin, peeled and cut into wedges
Extra virgin olive oil
6-8 thyme sprigs
2 French shallots, finely sliced
1 heaped Tab honey
3/4 cup (150g) Puy lentils, rinsed
1 clove garlic, skin removed
1 cup chopped soft herbs (such as parsley, coriander, chives, dill)
Handful of microgreens, sprouts or baby rocket to serve
Sea salt and black pepper, to taste
For the honey-miso dressing:
1 heaped Tab mild miso
3 heaped tsp runny honey
1 clove garlic, grated
1cm piece ginger, peeled and grated
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp water
Sea salt and black pepper, to taste
1. Preheat oven to 190˚C.
2. Place pumpkin onto large baking tray. Drizzle with oil, season and scatter with thyme sprigs. Roast for 15 minutes then remove from oven, turn pumpkin pieces over & drizzle with honey. Scatter the shallots over the pumpkin with another drizzle of oil. Return to oven, roast 15-20 mins more until pumpkin is tender. Remove from oven and season with sea salt.
3. Meanwhile, add the lentils & garlic clove to a large pot of salted water. Bring to the boil, reduce heat to medium-low and cook for 15-20 minutes until lentils are just tender. Drain, and if garlic clove has not disintegrated, mash it up with the back of a fork and fold it through the lentils.
While still warm add the herbs, drizzle with a touch more oil, season & toss to combine.
4. Place all dressing ingredients (except water) into a bowl & whisk to combine. If mixture is too thick, add 1-2 teaspoons of water to loosen it up. Season with sea salt and black pepper.
5.To serve, combine pumpkin, shallots & lentils. Drizzle over the miso-honey dressing and fold it through the vegetables to distribute evenly.
NOTE: This can be made up to three hours ahead. When ready to eat, top with the microgreens, sprouts or baby rocket.
