Warm lentil salad with haloumi

Now that the weather is starting to warm up it's a great time to transition from the hearty dishes of winter to slightly lighter dishes.

Tonight's dinner fits the bill:



Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 red onion, cut in half and sliced into half moon shapes
• 1 red capsicum, skin blackened over gas burner and then skin rubbed off when cooled, core and seed removed, chopped into pieces
• 400g can green lentils, drained and rinsed
• 1 garlic clove
• 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 2 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1/2 cup roughly chopped parsley
• 2 cups baby spinach leaves (I used home grown silverbeet instead)
• Fennel wedges baked with olive oil until caramelised at 180 degrees celsius (this is optional)
  
• Haloumi cheese, chopped into small wedge shapes

Method:

1. Heat half the oil in a large frypan and add the onions and cook over medium heat until golden and starting to caramelise.
   
2. Add the capsicum, fennel and cook until warmed through.
   
3. Add the drained lentils.
4. Combine remaining oil, garlic, vinegar and mustard, then stir into lentils with parsley and spinach (or silverbeet).
   
5. Meanwhile, fry wedges of haloumi cheese with a little olive oil in a frypan until golden on both sides.
   
6. Assemble dish with lentil mixture garnished with haloumi and a little extra parsley.