Bethany's Vegan Kitchen

This combines roasted leeks, cherry tomatoes & red pepper, along with chickpeas, spring onion, bulgur wheat and mixed salad leaves. The roasted vegetables add a lovely natural sweetness to this salad. It would be great as a side dish, either warm or chilled, and would go well with all sorts of things. It would also make for a lovely lunch eaten on its own. I love a good mix of colours, flavours and textures when it comes to salads, and this has a good mix of all three

Yield; Four servings as a side, two to three servings as a main Cook time; 30 minutes

You’ll need;

1. One leek, trimmed and sliced into pieces
2. 150g cherry tomatoes, sliced
3. One red pepper, deseeded and chopped into pieces
4. One small courgette, sliced
5. 100g bulgur wheat, rinsed
6. 400ml hot vegetable stock
7. Half a teaspoon of both dried basil and dried oregano
8. One 400g tin of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
9. Three spring onions, thinly sliced
10. One handful of mixed salad leaves, I used a blend of spinach, watercress and rocket

Method;

• Start by adding the hot vegetable stock, basil and oregano into a saucepan and bring it to a gentle simmer. Once simmering, add in the rinsed bulgur wheat and reduce the heat to low. Cover the saucepan with a lid and cook for 20 minutes
• While the bulgur wheat cooks, prepare the tomatoes, red pepper, courgette and leek. Pop them into a tray or air fryer basket and sprinkle them with a pinch of salt and pepper. Oven cook at 200°C/180ºC fan assisted for 25-30 minutes, or cook in an air fryer at 180°C for 20 minutes
• Once the bulgur wheat is cooked, pop it into a sieve to drain for 10 minutes
• Allow the roasted vegetables to cool for five minutes after cooking
• Finally fold the bulgur wheat, spring onion, chickpeas, roasted vegetables and mixed salad leaves together until well combined, season to taste with salt and black pepper
• Either serve the salad while it’s still warm, or leave it to cool and serve chilled. This should keep in the fridge for a couple of days

I find it’s generally quicker and more economical to roast the vegetables in the air fryer. You also don’t need to use any oil either, they roast perfectly well without any, just a little salt and pepper. You can of course roast the vegetables in the oven with a little oil if preferred