Butterbean & Pesto Salad

with tomatoes and feta

Pesto? on a salad? Oh yes!

Don’t save your pesto just for pasta. Here, we’re making ours into a delicious dressing for a salad made of butterbeans, tomatoes, and rocket. We’re also replacing some of the pine nuts with sunflower seeds since the latter is much more affordable than the former. It also helps increase our plant points so a win-win.

Ingredients

For the salad

  • 1 tin of butterbeans, drained and rinsed

  • 1 red onion, halved and thinly sliced

  • 1 tsp/glug extra virgin olive oil

  • 1 bag of rocket leaves

  • 175g cherry tomatoes, halved

  • 150g jarred roasted red peppers, thinly sliced

  • Large handful of fresh parsley, finely chopped

  • 75g feta cheese, crumbled
    dairy or dairy-free

For the pesto

  • 40g sunflower seeds

  • 35g pine nuts

  • 40g fresh basil leaves

  • 55ml extra-virgin olive oil

  • 45g grated parmesan

  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed

Method

  1. Begin by preheating the oven to 180ºc.

  2. Place the rinsed butterbeans and sliced red onion onto a baking tray. Drizzle over a glug of olive oil, add a pinch of salt and combine. Place into the oven to roast for 20 minutes.

  3. Meanwhile, prepare the pesto by blending all the pesto ingredients until smooth.

  4. In a large bowl add the rocket leaves, halved cherry tomatoes, sliced roasted red peppers and chopped parsley.

  5. Once the butterbeans and red onion are out of the oven add them to the bowl too along with 2/3 of the pesto.

  6. Give it a good mix and then split the mixture between 3 lunchboxes.

  7. Top with the crumbled feta and dollops of remaining pesto. Feel free to add some extra sunflower seeds too. Enjoy!

Serves 3.

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