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Beetroot, spiced almond, date and feta salad

This salad has so many tasty flavours in it, and is great as a side dish or on its own for lunch. The feta could be swapped for goats cheese for extra decadence.
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Course Lunch, Snacks and Sides, Soups and Salad
Servings 4
Gluten Free

Ingredients
  

  • red wine vinegar 3 tablespoons
  • sugar 1 teaspoon
  • red onion ½ thinly sliced
  • beetroot 3 large or 4 medium peeled, cut into 2-3cm cubes
  • olive oil for cooking
  • raw almonds ½ cup chopped
  • garlic 3 cloves chopped
  • ground sumac 1 tablespoon
  • chilli flakes ½ teaspoon
  • baby spinach and/or baby beetroot leaves 120g
  • medjool dates 4-5 or 6-8 regular dried dates, chopped
  • feta 75-100g crumbled
  • extra virgin olive oil for dressing salad

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 200°C. Line an oven tray with baking paper.
  • In a bowl, mix vinegar and sugar. Add onion and toss to coat. Set aside in the fridge to marinate for about 20 minutes while you prepare the rest of the salad.
  • On the lined tray, toss beetroot with a good drizzle of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast for 25-30 minutes or until tender.
  • Heat a drizzle of olive oil in a frying pan. Cook almonds and garlic for about 2 minutes until golden. Turn off heat and mix in sumac and chilli.
  • When ready to serve, drain red onion (reserve vinegar) and toss with salad leaves, beetroot, almonds, dates and feta. Dress with extra virgin olive oil and some reserved vinegar.

Notes

Marinating the onion for this recipe in a little vinegar and sugar is key to this salad! It softens the onion and gives it a nice pickled flavour, which is delicious with creamy feta, roast beetroot and spiced almonds.
Sumac is a reddish purple powder made by grinding up dried berries from the shrub of the same name. It has a tart flavour (much like lemon) and adds a lemony taste to many Middle Eastern dishes. I recommend you try to seek some out, but if you can’t find it you can substitute it with a little lemon zest or leave it out altogether from this recipe.