Roasted New Potato And Lentil Salad With Herb Dressing

This roasted French inspired new potato and lentil salad, and a herby dressing is a far cry from the standard mayo-filled (syn-filled) potato salad we all know. This one however, is packed with protein instead of fat with the combination of puy lentils and spinach. The potato adds the carb element, which in my opinion really satisfy’s you.

I don’t know about you, but I feel that any salad you eat as a complete meal needs to contain a carb and protein of any description in order to satiate and fill you up.

The herb vinaigrette poured over this salad lifts everything up with dill, chives, lots of lemon juice and a touch of garlic, it’s zingy and packed with flavour. Perfect for picnics and barbecues.

I used parts of a recipe my friend told me about while we were at the gym one evening, and a combination of a recipe I found online to create my own perfect salad.

I would say this is best eaten warm, however I wasn’t complaining about the leftovers the next day either. I was blown away by how tasty cold roast potatoes really could be.

You want to add the hot roasted potatoes straight onto the spinach and puy lentils, to wilt the spinach slightly, before pouring over the dressing.

I then made a last minute decision to add some pickled onions into it too and stirred it all through – it was absolute perfection!

New Potato And Lentil Salad Recipe

Ingredients

• 1kg new potatoes, washed and chopped in half
• 1 bag of spinach
• 1 pouch of Merchant Gourmet puy lentils (1.5 syns for the pounch)
• Jar of pickled onions
• Salt

Method

• Roast the chopped new potatoes until golden. I cooked mine in the air fryer – but you don’t want them too crispy.
• While the potatoes are cooking, layer the spinach into a large bowl and top with the puy lentils. No need to warm these up.
• Meanwhile, make the dressing (this needs to be ready before the potatoes are cooked). See recipe below
• As soon as the potatoes are cooked, pour them over the spinach and lentils, to wilt the spinach and mix it together
• Immediately add the herb dressing. The important thing for this recipe is to mix everything together while the potatoes are still very hot. The point is to wilt the spinach and have the potatoes absorb some of the dressing.
• Then you can add the pickled onions and mix through.
• Serve immediately

This new potato and lentil salad tastes best warm, but leftovers are almost as good the following day too. I would not recommend freezing this though!

Herb Dressing Recipe

Ingredients

• Approx 20g fresh chives
• Approx 10g fresh dill
• 2 cloves of garlic
• Couple of tablespoons of olive oil (syns – but this is needed for the dressing. Feel free to reduce)
• Half a bottle of lemon concentrate
• Salt & Pepper to taste

Method

• Finely chop the herbs.
• Mince the garlic (adjust to taste)
• Combine with all the other ingredients
• Mix well and pour over the salad when the potatoes are still hot

I’m generally not a fan of French cuisine at all, so used my own take on the dressing. I am blown away buy how great this new potato and lentil salad tastes – and not only that, it takes very little time to prepare too!