Roasted Cumin Carrot Lentil Salad with Cashew Cheese

Tender toasted cumin carrots and golden cauliflower with protein-packed lentils and a green leaf salad with fresh tomatoes.  Served with a thick, creamy and easy homemade cashew cheese, this vegan, gluten-free and balanced salad is great for lunch or dinner.

I love to buy baby carrots when I see them, there’s something so satisfying about roasting them whole until they become tender and sweet. They are also so easy to prepare but seem rather impressive and jazz up any salad or meal. Add them to a large roasting tray with ground cumin, syrup and olive oil and leave them in the oven until they are sticky, tender and wonderfully sweet but richly flavoured. At the same time, roast cauliflower, red onion and bashed garlic cloves (my new favourite way to eat them) with golden turmeric and that’s all there is to it.

Roasted Cumin Carrot Lentil Salad with Cashew Cheese

The second element to this Roasted Cumin Carrot Lentil Salad with Cashew Cheese is the lentils. You can find really great ones pre-cooked in a tin or you can cook your own and I think green or puy lentils work best here – you do not want to use red split lentils which are great for dahl and curry but not for salads. If you don’t have lentils, you could use another bean or pulse, like chickpeas or mixed beans.

The final element is the cashew cheese.  Now that I’ve made it a few times for this recipe, I wish I had been making it sooner – it is so ridiculously easy and tastes so good. As well as serving it on top of this salad, you can spread it onto toast with some avocado, stir it into dressings, use it as a dip for vegetables and crackers… you name it! Simply soak cashew nuts overnight to soften them before draining the nuts and blending up until silky smooth with salt and pepper, lemon juice and nutritional yeast.

Roasted Cumin Carrot Lentil Salad with Cashew Cheese

Roasted Cumin Carrot Lentil Salad with Cashew Cheese

I hope you will love this Roasted Cumin Carrot Lentil Salad with Cashew Cheese, it’s great to serve to friends and family or to make up a large batch and enjoy cold throughout the week for lunch. To make it more filling, it is best served with chunky bread or you can also serve it with cooked grains like rice, quinoa, buckwheat or even potatoes.

This salad is light yet filling and wholesome, packed with colour, texture and rich flavours. It comes together with minimal effort and leftovers taste great over the next few days.  It is naturally vegan, packed with plant-protein and gluten-free, too.

If you are looking for healthier and filling dinner options, how about my Paprika Roasted Squash and Apple Salad with Ginger Tahini, Roasted Red Pepper and Cauliflower Harissa Traybake, Tempeh Marinara with Rice or Winter Glow Bowls with Lemon Tahini.

Roasted Cumin Carrot Lentil Salad with Cashew Cheese

• Servings: 2
• Time: 50 minutes plus overnight soaking
• Difficulty: easy
• Print

Tender toasted cumin carrots and golden cauliflower with protein-packed lentils and a green leaf salad with fresh tomatoes. Served with a thick, creamy and easy homemade cashew cheese, this vegan, gluten-free and balanced salad is great for lunch or dinner.

Ingredients

• 300g baby carrots (or regular carrots, chopped into small chunks)
• ½ head cauliflower, in florets
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled and bashed with the back of a knife
• Olive oil
• 1 + ½ tsp ground cumin
• ½ tsp ground turmeric
• 2 tbsp syrup
• Salt and pepper
• 250g cooked green or puy lentils
• 2 large handfuls mixed greens
• 10 cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 small bunch fresh parsley, torn
• 2 tbsp pomegranate
• 2 tbsp mixed seeds
• For the Cashew Cheese:
• 120g cashew nuts
• 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 3 tbsp lemon juice
• 3 tbsp water

Directions

1. Start by soaking the cashew nuts overnight in filtered water and leaving them covered. When you are ready to make the cheese, drain and rinse them in cool water and add to a high-speed blender or food processor with the other ingredients and some salt and black pepper. Blend until really creamy, scraping down the sides as necessary. Transfer to an airtight jar and keep in the fridge.
2. Preheat the oven to 160Fan/180*C and line 2 large baking trays with parchment paper. Add the carrots to one tray with some olive oil, 1 tsp cumin, syrup, some salt and black pepper. Roast for 40-50 minutes until tender. To the second tray add the cauliflower, red onion and bashed garlic with some olive oil, ½ tsp ground cumin and the turmeric with salt and pepper. Roast for 30 minutes, until tender.
3. To serve, stir the lentils into the roasted vegetables with the fresh parsley. Divide the salad greens between two bowls, top with the lentils and roasted vegetables, a sprinkle of pomegranate, some seeds and spoonfuls of the cashew cheese. Leftover cashew cheese can be kept airtight in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Roasted Cumin Carrot Lentil Salad with Cashew Cheese

I look forward to hearing what you think of this Roasted Cumin Carrot Lentil Salad with Cashew Cheese. Let me know in the comments below and tag me in your creations – I’m @nourishing.amy on Instagram and use the hashtag #nourishingamy. I’m also on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest  – please say hello!

With cashew cheese love x