Warm Lentil Salad with Salmon or Halloumi

An easy midweek meal which will give your fibre and protein intake a boost. Buy ready-to-eat lentils in a sachet or cook your own. I’ve used brown whole lentils which I’ve soaked to halve the cooking time, but if you have more time this isn’t essential. Lentils provide carbohydrates, fibre and protein, as well as other micronutrients such as iron, and immune-supporting B vitamins. I like roughly chopped parsley which is rich in vitamin C, but if you have swallowing difficulties this may not be an ideal meal for you.

You can serve the salad by itself but I think it’s best topped with a fillet of grilled salmon, or if you prefer, a few slices of grilled halloumi.

Makes 2 portions of salad

Preparation time 15 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Download the recipe sheet

Ingredients

100g brown (whole) lentils or 250g pack ready to eat lentils

2 bay leaves if cooking your own lentils

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 medium carrot, finely diced

1 stick celery, finely diced

25g parsley, washed and roughly chopped

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp lemon juice

To serve:

Per serving: 100g salmon fillet skin on, or 100g sliced halloumi

Method

If you’re cooking your own lentils place in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil and add the bay leaves. Simmer until tender – around 35 minutes. If you pre-soak this will be around 15 minutes.
Heat the vegetable oil in a sauté pan and gently cook the onion, carrot and celery until they are almost soft, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and tip into a mixing bowl.
When the lentils are cooked through, drain, remove the bay leaves and stir into the vegetables.
For the salmon or halloumi – heat a grill to medium-high and grill the salmon, skin side up until the flesh is cooked through (5-7 minutes), or the halloumi slices until they are browned on one side.
Meanwhile stir the chopped parsley into the salad, along with the olive oil and lemon juice.
Serve a portion of the warm salad topped with the salmon or halloumi.

Tip: Halloumi is very salty so you won’t need to add salt to the salad.

Variation: Replace the parsley with chopped fresh tomatoes or rocket.

Storage: The lentil mixture without the parsley can be kept for up to 4 days in the fridge in an airtight container.

Nutritional analysis

Per portion with Salmon

With Salmon		With Halloumi
Energy kcal	479	553
Protein g	37.7	37
Carbohydrate g	29.2	30.9
Of which sugars g	4.6	6.3
Fat g	24.2	32.1
Of which saturates g	3.8	17.5
Fibre g	8.5	8.5
Salt g	0.2	3.1
Vitamin C mg	27	27