Lentil, Feta & Avocado Salad with Lemony Basil Dressing

This salad is full of interesting textures and flavours to help every last bite be as satisfying as possible. The tangy lemon and mustard dressing cuts through the saltiness of the feta cheese, while the toasted almonds bring a lovely crunch! I just love a satisfying tasty, fresh salad and this really does deliver on both counts. I don't use lentils often in cooking but after this little experiment I will be using them more to beef out salad and soups, even Max liked it!

Serves 2/3

Ingredients for the salad

50g green lentils

100g feta cheese

1 large avocado, diced

75g spinach

150g curly lettuce, chopped

2 red chicory, chopped

25g flaked almonds, toasted

3 spring onion, chopped

Ingredients for the dressing

Bunch of basil, roughly removing the leaves from the stalks

Juice of 1 lemon

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

3 tbsp olive oil

Salt & pepper

Instructions

Cook the lentils to the packet instructions and toast the almonds flakes, set both aside to cool.

Using a food processor, blitz the basil leaves until they are very finely chopped. Now add the lemon juice, mustard and olive oil, blitz again until everything is combined, then season to taste.

Place the lettuce, spinach, chicory, spring onion and lentils in a large salad bowl and spoon over some of the dressing, gently toss the salad to coat. Finally crumble over the feta cheese and sprinkle the almonds flakes. Taste the salad and add more dressing if you wish. Give the salad a final toss before serving.