These sweet and sour flavours combine beautifully with the earthy ingredients, and are finished perfectly with sweet candied walnuts and creamy mayo. It doesn’t take as long to make as it looks by the length of the recipe because you are doing everything at once: cooking the lentils while the veges roast.

Lentils

• 1 ½ cups puy lentils (you can use brown lentils but they won’t stay whole)
• 3 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
• ¼ tsp salt
• 4 Tbsp finely chopped parsley

Cook the lentils until just soft but not mushy – about 20 minutes. Drain, return to the pan and stir through the salt, vinegar, oil, lemon juice and balsamic vinegar. Put the lid back on and keep warm while you prepare the rest.

Beetroot

• 300 g beetroot with stems and leaves
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
• ¼ tsp salt

Cook the beetroot in salted water until soft. Peel, slice into chunks then return to the pot and marinate in the remaining ingredients. Keep warm.

Chop the stems finely and tear the leaves into random chunks. Reserve

Maple roasted pumpkin and walnuts

• 400g pumpkin, peeled, seeded and cut into 4 thick wedges
• 1/2cup shelled walnuts
• 2 Tbsp maple syrup
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• salt

Heat the oven to 200C. Place the pumpkin and walnuts in a single layer in a roasting dish. Pour the maple syrup and oil over them and toss to coat. Separate the pumpkin and walnuts into two piles, still keeping it all one layer deep, to make it easier to remove the walnuts (they will be cooked sooner). Put in the hot oven. After 5 or 10 minutes the maple syrup will start to caramelise and the walnuts will be toasting in the caremelised syrup. Keep an eye on this, you don’t want either to burn. Take out of the oven and remove the walnuts, reserve. Pour 2 Tbsp hot water into the dish, swirl it around to dilute the caremelised maple syrup and coat the pumpkins in it then return the dish to the pan and let the pumpkin finish roasting. Meanwhile cook the onion is the same hot oven.

Balsamic roasted onion

Slice one large brown onion into thin half rounds and separate all the slices. Place in a roasting pan and toss with 1 Tbsp olive oil and 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar. Spread out so it is all in one layer, it will go crispier this way. Roast until brown and crispy.

Walnut mayo

• 2 egg yolks
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• ¼ cup walnuts
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• ½ tsp salt
• ¾ cup oil

Place the yolks, first measure of oil, walnuts, lemon juice and salt into the small bowl of a food processor and process until the walnuts are finely chopped, almost pureed. With the motor still running pour the rest of the oil into the mixture in a thin, steady stream. It should thicken and emulsify.

Assembling

Just before you are ready to serve, put the beetroot stems into a pot with a couple of tablespoons water and bring to the boil for a minute. Throw in the leaves and wilt for a few seconds. Remove and drain. Stir the parsley through the lentils.

Divide the leaves and stems between 4 plates. Pour the lentils over the top and arrange beetroot chunks and one crescent of pumpkin on top of these. Sprinkle the crispy onion all around with the candied walnuts. Serve with a bowl of  walnut mayo to pass around.