This our go-to spring salad, it’s a super flexible recipe with the best combination of hearty flavours and freshness. The coffee vinaigrette is beautifully punchy and really lifts this dish up into something special. Feel free to use cooked lentils from a pouch, canned or cook dried, and experiment with different vegetables! You can also leave out the bacon to make this vegan.

Serves 4

 Ingredients

2 rashers smoked streaky bacon
2 red onions
2 peppers
1 fennel bulb
6 tomatoes
1 courgette
500g cooked Puy lentils (you could use tinned, pre-cooked or cook from dried)
Handful chopped mint
Handful chopped parsley
Handful rocket
1 espresso (around 35ml), cooled
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
3 tbsp olive oil
1tsp sea salt
Olive oil
Salt & pepper

Instructions

 Chop up your vegetables (you can add or leave out veg as you please – just use what you have!), dress with oil and season well with salt and pepper. Roast at 160C for 30-40 minutes or until the vegetables are browned and soft.

If you’re cooking the Puy lentils you’ll need 250g of dried. Rinse them well and add to a pot with three times the volume of water to lentils. Bring to a boil and simmer for around 25 minutes, until they are soft but not mushy, Drain and allow to cool.

Finely chop the bacon and fry on a medium heat until crispy and the fat has rendered. Add the cooked Puy lentils and warm through.

To make the espresso vinaigrette, combine the balsamic and cooled espresso, add the olive oil and whisk to combine. Add the sea salt and check the seasoning. Add more balsamic if it needs more sweetness.

Place the lentils in a bowl and add the roasted vegetables. Top with the rocket and roughly chopped herbs, drizzle liberally with the espresso vinaigrette.

You can also add cheese if you wish, goats cheese or parmesan would work well, the joy of this salad is its flexibility.

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