Recipe: Lentil-Beet Salad

Willa and Nora loved this, so I'm posting the recipe.

Ingredients:

3 cups cooked lentils (if you're using dried lentils, 1 cup dried makes about 3 cups cooked)
3 lb beets
4 tablespoons lemon juice (apple cider vinegar also works)
1 tablespoon juice from a jar of banana pepper rings
1 tablespoon oil
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup onions, sliced into thin, 1-cm bits
1/4 cup banana pepper rings, minced

beet greens, finely chopped (including stems)
OR two or three handfuls of finely chopped spinach

Method

1. Rinse the beets and remove top and tail. Do not peel. Roast in a foil package till tender. (375 for an hour usually does it) Let them cool. (I often do this the day before and work with room-temperature beets the next day.)

2. Prepare your lentils. (Put 1 cup lentils in pot with 2.5 cups water. Cover, and bring to a boil, then immediately reduce temperature and let simmer on lowest setting for about 40 minutes. Drain, if necessary, though probably all the water will be absorbed.)

3. Peel beets. (Having been roasted, the peels should just rub off if you push at them with your thumbs. Oiling your hands prior to this minimizes staining, but your hands will be pink when you're done!) Chop them into a fairly fine dice.

4. Put lentils, beets, onions, and finely chopped greens into a bowl.

5. Mix the remainder of the ingredients and pour over. Stir gently and thoroughly.

This can be eaten immediately, but gets much better if allowed to marinate for half an hour first, and then be put in the fridge overnight. It can be eaten chilled or at room temperature.

The girls had theirs at room temperature, and, given their size, they ate a lot. I normally let the children feed themselves, but given the stain potential of beets, I deemed it wise to feed them today. It was like sitting between two baby birds. First one mouth, then the other would pop open for the next spoonful. One bowl, the next bowl, one spoon, the next spoon, back and forth between the two. It was very cute.

This dish is LOADED with fibre, has lots of iron, and a heap of very RED beets. Be prepared for some colourful output from them over the next day or so...