• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Greedy Gourmet | Food & Travel Blog

Greedy Gourmet is an award winning food and travel blog. Eclectic recipes from all over the world are regularly published, satisfying the blog's audience of adventurous eaters' needs.

  • Home
  • Recipes
  • Travel
  • Pantry
    • Ingredient Substitutes
    • Q & A
    • Recipe Compilations
    • Cook By Ingredient
    • Quizzes
  • About
  • Work With Me
  • Contact
You are here: Home / Cooking Times / b) 30 - 60 mins / Beetroot, Feta & Lentil Salad

Beetroot, Feta & Lentil Salad

22nd January 2015 - By Michelle Minnaar
This post may contain affiliate links.

FacebookTweetPin2Yummly1Shares3
Jump to Recipe

A simple, straight-forward salad that will fill you up, especially when you’re on a diet during the winter months.

Meze Salad

It’s that time of the year again, my annual trip to The Real Greek. By now I know the menu off by heart, ordering my favourites without even referring to it. You can read two in-depth restaurant reviews, here and here. The Real Greek has six branches in London and last year opened its first restaurant outside the capital, in Windsor.

Greek Summer Salads

If you’re not living in London, fret not, The Real Greek and I have been collaborating over the past few years to teach the home cook how to recreate its spiffy dishes at home. Greek Salad, Htipiti and Tzatziki are the starters we’ve produced so far and check out these Greek cookbooks that will further inspire you to bring the mediterranean to your kitchen:

  • Smashing Plates: Greek Flavours Redefined
  • Food From Many Greek Kitchens
  • Vefa’s Kitchen
  • It’s All Greek to Me

Lentils on White Plate

Don’t be intimidated by the list of ingredients. The leek, onion, celery, garlic and carrot need to be blitzed into a pulp in a food processor such as a Magimix. This mixture is known as sofrito and serves the same, albeit more flavoursome, purpose as a stock cube. So if you’re in a real hurry or don’t have the ingredients at hand, you know what to do – substitute!

Lentils and Mixed Veg in Pot

You don’t need to soak lentils overnight. However, if you do, you will reduce the cooking time by half. After you’ve simmered the sofrito, lentils and allotted water there should be little water left in the pot. Now you add your olive oil, lemon juice, salt and ground pepper. In Greek cuisine, these lentils are known as Fakes Salata. You can eat it warm on its own for a snack or as a starchy side dish to a main course.

Greek Lentil Salad

In fact, the lentils are so versatile that if you add more water than stated in the recipe, you can blend everything in a Froothie when it’s cooked, and voila, you’ve made Lentil Soup.

Beetroot on White Plate

If you managed not to get sidetracked by the variations and are intent on making this delicious salad, the rest of the recipe is dead easy. Cooked, vacuum-packed beetroot is readily available at shops and you just need to chop it into manageable chunks. If you’re feeling sassy, you can roast raw slices.

Feta on a White Plate

Use Greek feta if you can. Chop or crumble to your heart’s content.

Greek starter

Lentils. Beetroot. Feta. Garnish with spring onion, parsley and dill if you like. Drizzle some vinaigrette or if you want to go completely Greek, use Ladolemono – a mixture of olive oil and lemon juice with a respective ratio of 70:30.

The Real Greek restaurant's starter

Happy eating!

Print
clock clock icon cutlery cutlery icon flag flag icon folder folder icon instagram instagram icon pinterest pinterest icon print print icon squares squares icon
Greek starter

Beetroot, Feta and Lentil Salad


★★★★★

5 from 1 reviews

  • Author: Michelle Minnaar
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cook Time: 45 minutes
  • Total Time: 1 hour
  • Yield: 8 servings 1x
Print Recipe
Pin Recipe
Scale

Ingredients

  • 30g (1 oz) leek
  • 30g (1 oz) onion
  • 30g (1 oz) celery
  • 20g (1 oz) garlic
  • 30g (1 oz) carrot
  • 500g (1lb) dried green lentils
  • 800ml (1.5pt) water
  • 150ml (5 oz) extra virgin olive oil
  • 75ml (5 tbsp) lemon juice
  • 15g (1/2 oz) salt
  • 7.5g (1/4 oz) ground pepper
  • 250g (1/2lb) Greek feta
  • 500g (1lb) cooked beetroot
  • 45ml (3 tbsp) ladolemono
  • 8 spring onions, thinly sliced
  • 40g (1 oz) parsley, chopped
  • 40g (1 oz) dill, chopped

Instructions

  1. Place the leek, onion, celery, garlic and carrot in a food processor and blitz until everything turns into a pulp. This concoction is known as sofrito.
  2. Rinse the lentils in cold water and remove any debris that catches your eye.
  3. Place the lentils, sofrito and water into a pot and simmer for around 40 minutes or until the lentils are cooked.
  4. Let the lentils cool down.
  5. Divide the lentils evenly onto 8 small plates.
  6. Break up the feta and chop the beetroot into small bite-sized portions and place on top of the lentils.
  7. Drizzle the ladolemono on top.
  8. Mix the spring onion, parsley and dill together and garnish each salad.

  • Category: Starter
  • Method: Boil
  • Cuisine: Greek

Nutrition

  • Calories: 434
  • Sugar: Sugars
  • Sodium: 1142 mg
  • Fat: 24.5 g
  • Carbohydrates: 32.1 g
  • Fiber: Dietary Fiber
  • Protein: 18.8 g
  • Cholesterol: 28 mg

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @greedygourmet on Instagram and hashtag it #greedygourmet

Related Recipes

  • Lentils, Beans & Leeks
  • Beetroot Salad with Feta and Pumpkin Seeds

save the recipe to your pinterest board

FacebookTweetPin2Yummly1Shares3

RECEIVE FAB RECIPES, WIN EXCLUSIVE PRIZES + MORE

Subscribe to my free newsletter and receive an eCookbook of my most popular recipes!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Rosa says

    22nd January 2015 at 10:59 am

    A scrumptious and wholesome salad! Exactly the kind of dish I love to prepare and eat.

    Cheers,

    Rosa

    Reply
  2. Becca @ Amuse Your Bouche says

    22nd January 2015 at 1:55 pm

    This looks absolutely wonderful! Such gorgeous ingredients – simple but so effective 🙂

    Reply
  3. [email protected] says

    22nd January 2015 at 2:08 pm

    What wonderful flavours, a good salad is unbeatable but I do have to have some bread with it or maybe a few chips as you have on your serving table!

    Reply
  4. Jen @ Blue Kitchen Bakes says

    22nd January 2015 at 8:28 pm

    Simple but delicious, looks like a perfect way to enjoy a filling salad during the winter months.

    Reply
  5. Jacqueline Meldrum says

    22nd January 2015 at 9:55 pm

    This is my kind of meal Michelle. Great flavours!

    Reply
  6. Sarah Maison Cupcake says

    23rd January 2015 at 10:07 am

    I remember this dish well at Real Greek and often make my own variation at home. Time to serve it again me thinks…

    Reply
  7. Emily Leary says

    28th January 2015 at 8:57 pm

    I adore the combination of feta and beetroot – this looks really delicious. Pinned and stumbled.

    Reply
  8. Emily Leary says

    28th January 2015 at 8:57 pm

    I adore the combination of feta and beetroot – this looks really delicious. Pinned and stumbled.

    Reply
  9. Renil M. George says

    24th September 2017 at 4:37 pm

    Great healthy foods, thank you.

    ★★★★★

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

★☆ ★☆ ★☆ ★☆ ★☆

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

RECEIVE FAB RECIPES, WIN EXCLUSIVE PRIZES + MORE

Subscribe to my free newsletter and receive an eCookbook of my most popular recipes!

Footer

 

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

 

  • Home
  • About
  • Work With Me
  • Contact
  • Copyright, Privacy & Disclosure Policy
  • Food Photography
  • Recipe Development
  • Food Videography
  • Site Map

All photos found on Greedy Gourmet are available for licensing. Contact me for quotes. Alternatively, go to Stock Photos to see what's available.

Copyright Greedy Gourmet© 2007–2021