Green bean, herby mushroom and baked feta salad

Sainsburys has now been and I am on the food come down/detox from holiday, so this week is going to be all about the soups for lunch and the warm salads/low GI meals for dinner. As you know, I love vegetables and cheese (my favourite meal!), so this is not hardship for me, however, I do have to work at creating variety in the combination of cheese and vegetable flavours and textures.

Today had also been like a 'snow day' after the largest storm in the UK in a decade having caused travel chaos. So, this was a very welcome fresh and crisp baked cheese salad.


What you will need
1 (250g) packet of green beans
200g chestnut mushrooms
2 cloves garlic
Fresh chives
Fresh parsley
Lemon thyme
1 table spoon flaked almonds
100g feta cheese
1/2 lemon


First of all prepare the feta. I use 50g per person. Add the zest of half a lemon and a good squeeze of fresh lemon juice to the feta. Place two quarters of the lemon to the dish to bake with it. Season with salt and plenty of black pepper. Top with the sprigs of fresh lemon thyme and set aside.

Thickly slice the mushrooms and crush the garlic cloves. Cook the mushrooms in some olive oil with the garlic and plenty of chopped chives and parsley for 5 minutes.

Bake the feta cheese in a preheated oven at 200 degrees for about 10-15 minutes until browned.

Meanwhile steam the green beans until al dente. Lastly, lightly dry toast the table spoon of almonds in a frying pan until slightly coloured.


Serve the salad warm, with the green beans on the bottom, top with the mushrooms, then the feta and finally the almonds. Drizzle over a tiny bit of olive oil and squeeze out and over the juices from the lemon baked with the feta.

If you want some bread with this, serve with some toasted pitta breads. I didn't, and Gipsy Spread had some lamb steaks marinated in pomegranite molasses and mint with his dinner. This meal is so satisfying with it's robust flavours that no carbs. are necessary.