Morroccan Carrot and Lentil Salad

I made this lovely salad for lunch. The original salad doesn't have any lentils in it, but I wanted something a little more substantial and added them. It was delicious, lightly spicy and the carrots were still crunchy.

I used my own carrots from my garden, lovely and purple!

Morroccan Carrot And Lentil Salad (adapted from Plenty - Yotam Ottolenghi)

(Serves 4)

1kg carrots

80ml olive oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 250g packet cooked puy lentils

1 tsp caster sugar

3 garlic cloves, crushed

2 green chillies, crushed

1 spring onion, finely chopped

1/8 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground coriander

3/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp sweet paprika

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tbsp white wine vinegar

1 tbsp chopped preserved lemon

40g chopped fresh coriander

120g Greek yoghurt

Peel the carrots and cut them into 1cm thick pieces, depending on the size, they should all roughly be the same size. Place them in a large saucepan and cover with salted water. Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for about 10 mins, or until tender but still crunchy. Drain in a colander and leave to dry out.

Heat the oil in a frying pan and sauté the onion until soft and slightly brown. Add the cooked carrots and lentils to the onions and then the rest of the ingredients apart from the coriander and yoghurt. Remove from the heat, season with salt, stir well and leave to cool.

Before serving stir in the coriander. Serve with a dollop of yoghurt, a drizzle of olive oil and some extra coriander.