Comforting and healthy protein rich lentil salad mixed with herby roast veg, creamy vegan feta and a balsamic mustard dressing. Delicious!

One of the BEST and yet WORST things about being a food blogger is the food.  The sheer volume of food.  The many MANY different types of food.  Sweet.  Or savoury.  Sweet but also savoury.  The successes.  The failures.  Sometimes (but only sometimes) it all gets a bit much and you just want a bowl of something that’s simple.  Using simple, healthy ingredients.

Ingredients that you KNOW without doing hours of research actually ARE healthy.  Not a healthy alternative or substitution that requires even more hours of research and practice to get a recipe right.  Ingredients that just work together.

Like salads.  I ❤ salad.  Mostly because I know it’s healthy, but also because a simple salad can be just as tasty and satisfying as a big bowl of something that might have taken hours to perfect or hours to cook.  Or both.  I also ❤ salad because you can chuck practically anything together for some amazing flavour combinations and textures.

Take this Lentil, Roasted Veg and Feta Salad.  Herby roasted vegetables and creamy, salty feta cheese.  Hodmedod’s protein packed very special lentils – you can read why they’re special here.  And I didn’t even mention those things that are the maple glazed walnuts yet.  OH.  MY.  GOSH.  Those walnuts.  I’m literally drooling as I type.  A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how I sometimes make something that I end up eating before I’ve actually remembered to take the photos.  Well, I’ve given up trying to get a better photo of these walnuts because I literally CANNOT STOP EATING THEM.  I’m at the point now where I’m hoping there’s some kind of hotline I can call for this addiction.

Just 3 ingredients – walnuts, maple syrup, Hodmedod’s Camelina Seeds – and literally 5 minutes of your time before you could be enjoying these babies.  Well, add another 2 minutes waiting for the little buggers to cool down because molten lava maple syrup.  I’ve tried them with pecans too, just as good.  As is pecans AND walnuts.  And just as good as when used on this Chocolate Orange Nutty Truffle Tart.  Told you .. addicted.

As for the salad, I could just sit with a GIANT bowl of it and nom for hours.  It’s filling without bloating.  And it’s so SO tasty and so full of texture.  Particularly if you actually save some of the walnuts to go with it rather than eating them straight out of the pan.

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