Salads
Lamb, beetroot and rocket salad with pumpkin seed and chilli dressing
This is a truly sumptuous salad: succulent slices of griddled lamb set off by earthy beets and sweet blood oranges. With a bit of crunch from the pumpkin seeds and the freshness of the herbs and rocket, a very good dinner is complete.
Ingredients
main
- 4 lamb steaks
- 500g beetroot, whole, with their skins on
- 100g rocket leaves
- 2 blood oranges, peeled and cut into half moon shapes or segments
for the dressing
- 50g pumpkin seeds, toasted
- 1 red chilli, deseeded and chopped (or use crumbled dried chilli)
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- juice of 1 lemon
- handful of fresh parsley, roughly chopped
- handful of fresh mint, roughly chopped
- 150ml olive oil
- salt and pepper
Method
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Step 1
put all the ingredients in a food processor and blitz to a paste. Spread half the mixture over the lamb steaks and leave to marinate.
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Step 2
While the lamb is marinating, cook the beetroot: Preheat oven to 200°C/Gas 6. Cover each whole beetroot with foil and bake in the oven until tender, about 1-1½ hours, depending on their size. Remove from the oven and rub off the skin when cool enough to handle, then cut into wedges.
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Step 3
Heat a griddle pan and cook the lamb for about 4-5 minutes on each sides, depending on the thickness of the meat. Leave to rest, then slice thickly.
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Step 4
Arrange the rocket, beetroot and oranges on a plate. Scatter over the lamb pieces and drizzle over a little more of the dressing to serve.
