Pesto Pepper Salad
I love a filling salad that’s packed with nutrients and has a lot of protein! There’s about 35g of protein per serving in this recipe, plus plenty of fibre and micronutrients. You can swap the butter beans for your favourite pulse (chickpeas would be delicious too).
Jump to recipeI love a filling salad that’s packed with nutrients and has a lot of protein! There’s about 35g of protein per serving in this recipe, plus plenty of fibre and micronutrients. You can swap the butter beans for your favourite pulse (chickpeas would be delicious too).
What ingredients do you need for this dish (includes possible substitutions)?
Peppers: roasted peppers give the dish a delicious sweet taste to the recipe!
Butter beans: chickpeas would be great too here instead.
Spinach: you can use whatever base for the salad that you like, romaine lettuce would be great too!
Mozzarella: could be swapped with feta if preferred!
Giant cous cous: can be swapped with another grain, e.g. bulgar wheat, pearl barley…
Black olives: adds a nice saltiness! Green would obviously work too!!
Capers: adds a bit of acidity and some more seasoning to the dish.
FAQ
What’s the best way to store this dish?
If not eating straight away, I’d recommend keeping the dressing separate then place in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
If you’re looking for another salad dish, be sure to try out these recipes:
Pesto Pepper Salad
I love a filling salad that’s packed with nutrients and has a lot of protein! There’s about 35g of protein per serving in this recipe, plus plenty of fibre and micronutrients. You can swap the butter beans for your favourite pulse (chickpeas would be delicious too).
Ingredients
for the salad
- 2 peppers, deseeded and chopped into 1 inch pieces
- 1 400g can butter beans (drained weight about 240g)
- 60g spinach, chopped (or romaine lettuce, or your favourite salad!)
- 125g mozzarella, ripped into bitesize pieces
- 160g giant couscous (cooked weight)
- 65g black olives, roughly chopped
- 2 tbsp capers
- Oil, salt
for the pesto dressing
- 30g basil
- 100g greek yoghurt
- 1 garlic clove, peeled (optional)
- 25g parmesan/italian hard cheese
- 2 tbsp pine nuts
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tbsp water
- Pinch of salt
Method
- Preheat your oven to 200c fan. Place the peppers and butter bean on a large shallow baking tray then add a good pinch of salt and drizzle with 1-2 tbsp of oil. Mix it all together really well with your hands. Place in the oven for 20 minutes, or until golden.
- Meanwhile, cook the giant couscous according to packet instructions.
- Blend together the ingredients for the salad dressing with a pinch of salt.
- In a large salad serving bowl, add the spinach then top with the rest of the salad ingredients. Drizzle over the dressing then mix it all together. And that’s it!
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