Beetroot, Buckwheat And Walnut Salad

Buckwheat and beetroots have wonderful grounding properties — they nourish and balance — which is something I love about this salad. It’s great as is, for a filling lunch, or you can serve it with protein such as a chicken breast or fish fillet. If you don’t follow a dairy-free diet, you can also add some feta or goat’s cheese for an extra hit of deliciousness.

Ingredients

1 small red onion, finely sliced
50 g (1 oz/ cup) raw buckwheat, rinsed
1 red capsicum (pepper) seeded and finely sliced in long strips
1 handful of flat-leaf (Italian) parsley, leaves picked, stalks finely chopped
60 g (2 oz/ cup) walnuts, roughly chopped
75 g (2 oz/ cup) currants
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 beetroot (beet), peeled and grated

DIRECTIONS

Place the onion in a small container of water and soak for 30 minutes to take the bitter onion flavour away, then drain.

To cook the buckwheat, bring a large saucepan of water to the boil. Add the rinsed buckwheat, place the lid on and bring back to the boil (this will take approximately 2 minutes), then cook for 12–15 minutes. This is a boiling rather than absorption method of cooking the buckwheat, so ensure you have plenty of water in your pan. Once cooked, drain the buckwheat and set aside.

Drain and rinse the onion, then combine with the buckwheat, capsicum, parsley, walnuts, currants, olive oil and lemon juice in a bowl, and toss together. Season with salt and pepper, then lightly toss through the beetroot and serve.

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