LAMB STEAKS, LENTILS & TURKISH SALAD

For our last holiday, we stayed in a hotel on the coast of Turkey. Every day I watched the chefs prepare salad. They rolled up leaves and huge handfuls of herbs. They added garlic, sumac and chilli if you wanted, but essential to the flavours were sweet pomegranate molasses and sharp lemon. Don’t worry if you don’t have one of the ingredients for the salad as there are plenty of others to make up for it.

Serves 4 Per serving of lamb and lentils: 10.5g net carbs

3.8g fibre 28g protein

16.1g fat 311kcal. Per serving of salad: 10g net carbs

2.4g fibre 1.9g protein

7.1g fat 115kcal

12tbsp dripping or olive oil, for frying

1 onion, finely sliced

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

400g tin of cooked green lentils, drained and rinsed 4 lamb steaks, weighing about 600g (1lb 5oz)

For the Turkish salad

Juice of ½ a lemon, to taste

2tbsp pomegranate molasses

2tbsp extra-virgin olive oil 1tsp sumac (optional) 4 round tomatoes or a handful of cherry tomatoes

3 small cucumbers or ½ a long cucumber

4 spring onions or 1 small onion

A small handful of crunchy salad leaves, such as romaine, iceberg or little gem lettuce or purslane or watercress A large handful of one or a mixture of dill, mint leaves, coriander or flatleaf parsley, chopped A little finely chopped, spicy green chilli or chilli flakes, to taste (optional)

Heat the dripping in a frying pan over a medium heat and fry the onion with some seasoning for about 10 minutes until lightly browned and softened.

Meanwhile, make the salad by mixing together the lemon juice, pomegranate molasses, oil and sumac, if using, in a serving bowl and season to taste. Now get chopping, but don’t spend ages doing this, a rough cut is fine. Use a serrated knife to cut the tomatoes into dice. Peel the cucumber and dice it. Line up a row of spring onions and chop them together into fine dice.

Add the chopped ingredients to the dressing as you go. I find the easiest way to cut the lettuce is to lay down the leaves and put the herbs on top (apart from the tough mint stems). Roll them up and hold down with one hand as you chop with the other, cutting them into fine shreds. Toss the salad, add the chilli, if using, and taste once more for seasoning.

When the onions are soft, add the lentils and stir through to heat. Tip the onions and lentils onto warm serving plates and set aside somewhere warm. Keep the pan to cook the lamb.

Season the lamb steaks all over and fry them over a medium-high heat for 2 minutes on each side for medium, or a little longer if you prefer them well done. Put the lamb on top of the lentils and serve with the salad alongside.