Roasted Carrot Salad Recipe

Beautiful baby carrots are kept whole in this salad, which makes them so eye catching. Honey brings out the natural sweetness of the carrots, which works so well with the nutty buckwheat. Making your own pesto is so easy, and using parsley and hazelnuts makes this pesto a bit different!. Our roasted carrot salad takes a classic British vegetable and makes it into a filling and super tasty salad with a large helping of buckwheat. Buckwheat is flying high for the “ancient grains” flag at the moment (although not technically a grain) and we’re glad for it. Buckwheat is a great source of iron and protein and even has those elusive b vitamins – hello veggie friends! The flavour is nutty and buckwheat is now easily available in most supermarkets, but if you can’t get your hands on any try spelt or freekeh (some brands do great packets of pre-cooked which means just a little less time in the kitchen). Random Buckwheat fact: there’s an International Symposium on Buckwheat held every three years. It’s organized by the International Buckwheat Research Association (IBRA) and has been held in Slovenia, Japan, Poland, Russian, China, Japan, Canada, South Korea and the Czech Republic since its inauguration in 1980. Back to the salad! Our roasted carrots are the stars of this dish and have never looked better – dressed up in loads of fragrant herbs and pesto, sweetened with a bit of honey and some lovely toasted hazelnuts for some added crunch. This roasted carrot salad is a great dish that will become a staple in any kitchen.

HOW TO MAKE ROASTED CARROT SALAD

Ingredients

• 300g buckwheat
• 400g baby carrots, halved lengthways
• 1tbsp olive oil
• 2tbsp honey
• extra parsley, to serve

For the pesto:

• small bunch parsley
• 150ml olive oil
• juice of 1⁄2 lemon
• 1tbsp grated Parmesan
• 50g hazelnuts, toasted

Method

1. Heat the oven to 200C. Cook the buckwheat on the hob according to the pack instructions. Meanwhile, put the carrots on a baking tray, drizzle with olive oil and roast for 10 mins. Drizzle over the honey and roast for a further 5 mins.
2. To make the pesto, blend all the ingredients and thin with extra olive oil to reach the desired consistency if necessary. Mix the cooked buckwheat with the chopped parsley and the carrots. pour over the pesto dressing to serve.