Lentil and Butternut Squash Salad

There's a bit of a mega health kick going at the moment. A few hedonistic months followed by an indulgent birthday last week have created the need. Most the time I actually quite enjoy a stint of healthy eating, once I get into it. Mainly because I love fish and vegetables and when I force myself to drink a bit less and take some exercise I actually feel great. I just wish I could remember that the rest of the time when red wine and cheese look like the best things EVER.

Yesterday there was a need to have something incredibly light because I was going round to my friends' house for dinner and I already knew their plans for roasting an entire suckling pig (which was awesome by the way Theresa and Ian, I'm really not sure I raved enough about this at the time, too busy yapping). So to this end it had to be something low carb and also (sob) probably even vegetarian, well as vegetarian as I ever manage, which probably means I'll throw some chorizo in at the end. This salad came in around 200 calories, leaving lots of room for wine and pork later!

One of my favourite things to eat on a health kick is butternut squash. It's got that carby, comforting, potato like feel, whilst at the same time being much lighter. I have a similar thing with celeriac, which luckily is one of my favourite things ever.

Also, if you're anything like me you wont be able to tolerate fake sweetener. No matter how healthy I'm being I also have to have real butter and real sugar. The alternatives are just too disgusting. So, on that notes another good tip is agave nectar. It's delicious and naturally sweet but is quite a bit lighter than any other type of sugar than I've found.

If you're not bothered about making this salad super light I would consider adding more oil to the dressing, doubling the amount of chorizo sausage and also maybe adding some cheese. I thought feta might be nice.

Lentil and Butternut Squash Salad

Serves 1

For the salad:
1/4 butternut squash
few pinches of smoked paprika
pinch of chilli flakes
40g puy lentils
15g chorizo sausage
mixed leaves
4 or 5 sun blushed tomatoes
4 or 5 fresh cherry tomatoes
1/4 of a red pepper
small handful of black olives
a few slices red onion

For the dressing:
splosh of sherry vinegar
1 tsp of agave nectar
1/2 tsp wholegrain mustard
salt and pepper

Peel and cube the butternut squash and pop it in an oven dish with a tiny bit of oil, the smoked paprika, chilli flakes and some seasoning. Roast at 200c for about 40 minutes or until soft.

Towards the end of the cooking time pop the puy lentils in cold water with some salt and bring to the boil, turn down the heat and then simmer for about ten minutes. I'm never quite sure how long to cook them but the lentils MUST have a nice bite when they're done. Nothing worse than soggy overcooked lentils.

Chop the chorizo sausage into nice chunky slices and fry them off quickly in a pan until they start to crisp up and the oils have released.

At this point put all the remaining ingredients for the salad in a bowl and mix together and plate up. When the lentils, squash and sausage are ready mix the warm ingredients together and pop on top of the leaves.

For the dressing, take the pan that you've fried the chorzio in. For me I wanted to use that oil as the base of my dressing. Add a good glug of sherry vinegar, then stir in the agave nectar, the wholegrain mustard and season and throw over the salad.