Middle Eastern Nourish Bowl

This Middle Eastern flavoured nourish bowl is, at its heart, a really just an untossed salad. But, rather than being something that sits on the side of your plate, politely nudging you to eat your "five a-day", this salad smacks you in the face with deliciousness, with a combination of spiced roast veggies, crisp brassica slaw, dried fruit, seeds, and smothered in a tahini dressing and yoghurt.

Need another reason to make this recipe? Well, it is also super flexible, and the ingredients can be modified to reflect what you have in your fridge, for example, you could change the variety of...

• Roasted vegetable: I have used carrots, pumpkin and sweet potatoes, but beetroots and parsnips would work too. You could even use left over roast veggies.
• Legumes: I have used beluga lentils, you could use puy lentils or chickpeas instead. I used dried beans and cooked them, however, you could use tinned.
• Salad Vegetable: you could you mixed salad greens, baby spinach, rocket, shaved cauliflower or brussle sprouts. If you are feeling super lazy or tight on time, you could just buy some "Kaleslaw".
• Dried fruit: I used cranberries, but raisins, sultanas, currants, goji berries, thinly sliced dried apricots or dates, or any combination would work. Alternatively, fresh pomegranate would work super well!
• Nuts and seeds: I used a mix of sunflowers and pepitas, plain old almonds would work fine too.

As a basic rule, just think flavour and colour!

This is a very satisfying salad, a meal, not a "side", however, if you wanted to make this recipe more hearty, then grilled haloumi, falafels, chicken, or lamb (backstraps or koftas I suggest) would go nicely. It would also be delicious wrapped in some Lebanese bread and toasted, though it would make a hefty wrap!