Roast Pumpkin + Lentil Salad | Gluten Free

This salad is a combination of earthy, fresh, sweet and herby. You can add some extra seasonal herbs or vegetables, to suit what you are harvesting and like to eat, or substitute sweet potato in for the pumpkin.

Roast the pumpkin seeds to add extra crunch and reduce waste too!

roast Pumpkin + Lentil Salad

MAKES

Serves 4 to 6

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 cup dried brown or french lentils (about 200gm)
  • 2 to 3 cups of filtered water, to soak
  • 1 tbsp vinegar or lemon juice
  • 1 tbsp salt
  • 1/4 Jap/ Kent pumpkin (about 500gm) & seeds (or sweet potato – see note)
  • 1/2 to 1 red capsicum
  • 1 tsp garlic infused olive oil
  • 1 tsp roast onion infused olive oil
  • 1 tbsp macadamia oil
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 cup combination of loose herb leaves (basil, coriander, mint, green spring onion ends, flat leaf parsley or combination)
  • Dressing (choose a salad dressing from the Vinaigrette Three Ways recipes)
  • 1/2 cup fetta (soft or crumbled)
  • 2 to 4 cold hard boiled eggs (I steam mine for 12 minutes)

OPTIONAL

  • Handful of green beans (100gm), blanched
  • Cherry tomatoes, cucumber or julienne carrot/ kohl rabi
  • 2 slices gluten free bread or rolls (croutons)
  • 1/2 cup of chopped nuts (pecans, walnuts or macadamias, or combination)

METHOD

  1. Combine lentils with water and vinegar/ lemon juice in a large bowl. Soak for 8 to 12 hours. Drain and rinse.
  2. Add the lentils to a large pot with clean water, enough to cover by about 5 cms
  3. Simmer for 15 minutes, uncovered. Turn off.
  4. Add 1 tbsp salt, cover and allow to soak in salted hot water for 20 minutes
  5. Drain, and set the lentils aside in a large bowl
  6. Meanwhile whilst the lentils are cooking, remove peel and seeds from pumpkin and cut into cubes. Rinse seeds and remove tissue. Remove stem and seeds from capsicum, then cut into slices.
  7. Put the pumpkin cubes in a baking dish, drizzle with the oils, and gently toss the pumpkin cubes with oils and the 1/2 tsp salt
  8. Roast the pumpkin cubes for 30 to 40 minutes until tender and starting to brown
  9. Half way through add the pumpkin seeds and capsicum strips (& gluten free bread is using), toss in the oil in the baking dish, and bake for the remaining 15 minutes
  10. Allow veges, seeds & croutons to cool. Dice capsicum strips.
  11. Make dressing (as per instructions in the Vinaigrette Three Ways recipe)
  12. Chop herbs, and julienne any other vegetables you are using.
  13. Combine together the cooked lentils, roast veges, herbs, dressing, croutons, seeds, then transfer to serving bowl. Serve with fetta, cold boiled eggs and nuts if using

MEAL PREP/ COOK ONCE, SERVE TWICE

  • You can roast the vegetables several days in advance, store in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer until needed. It is also a great recipe to use up leftover roasted vegetables.
  • You can prep the individual elements in the morning, to bring together and serve as dinner
  • For Salad in a Jar, you can prep the salad for lunches for the week, but keep the dressing, fetta, boiled eggs and croutons all in small separate containers,
  • Transform the leftover salad into dahl, samosas, curried lentil pies or jaffles, etc.

NOTES

  • You can use a 400gm tin of brown lentils, if you don’t want to soak and cook your own.
  • According to the Monash Uni Low FODMAP Diet app, 1/2 cup of canned lentils is considered low in FODMAPS (the water soluble sugars leach out into the water and the water from the can is discarded). If cooking your own lentils, soaking them beforehand with some acid (vinegar or lemon juice) added will also help. Be careful eating too much of this salad if you do not tolerate legumes very well.
  • If substituting sweet potato in, be aware than anything more than 1/2 cup is considered higher in FODMAP polyols. Also note that 1/2 cup of butternut pumpkin is higher in FODMAPs.
  • If you are new to a Low FODMAP Way of Eating, check out my Beginner’s guide.
  • If you do not require low FODMAP recipe, you can use 1 small clove of garlic, crushed, instead of the infused oil, as well as veges like corn, sugar snap peas, snow peas and red onion.