CHIMICHURRI SALMON WITH LENTILS AND FETA SALAD

SERVES 4

We’re using chimichurri as a sauce, come dressing, for a beautiful piece of cooked and cooled salmon. You can roast or poach the salmon but what we like to do is roast the salmon with some of the chimichurri over it to really get the flavours working, adding the rest later on.

 If you want to make this recipe even easier than it already is, when it comes to the puy lentils, buy yourself a packet of cooked puy lentils, they come in pouches and are really good!!

 Other than the main players of salmon, chimichurri and puy lentils there’s lots of other tasty morsels in there but the other key one is feta cheese, but if you’re not a fan of feta cheese you could always use something else, goats cheese is another that works really well in this recipe.

For the chimichurri

• Small bunch parsley, roughly chopped
• ½ tsp fresh oregano
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 shallot, chopped
• ½ tsp chilli flakes
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• Juice ½ lemon
• 2 tsp red wine vinegar
• Good pinch salt

Blitz together everything in a food processor or by hand in a pestle and mortar.

For the salmon

• 4 fillets of salmon

Brush each fillet of salmon with a small amount of the chimichurri sauce and cook in the oven for 10 minutes at 190’c then allow to cool.

For the salad

• 1 red onion, chopped
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 garlic clove, chopped
• 400g Puy lentils, rinsed
• Chicken or vegetable stock cover the lentils
• Packet of feta, crumbled
• Tub of sunblushed tomatoes, chopped
• 1 tbsp fresh coriander and parsley, chopped
• Grated zest of 1 lemon
• Juice of 1 lemon juice
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

In a pan, soften the red onion in the olive oil. Add the garlic cloves and fry for 1 minute.

Add the Puy lentils, cover with the hot vegetable stock, bring to the boil and simmer until tender. Drain, then stir in the feta, sunblushed tomatoes, parsley, coriander and the lemon zest.

Season with salt and pepper, add the lemon juice and drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil.

Serve the salmon on top of the lentil and feta salad and top with the remaining chimichurri sauce. Enjoy!