Warm Meatball Salad with Chickpeas, Feta, Olives and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Just because the cold weather has arrived it doesn't mean that you have to get rid of salads from the dinner table... this delicious meatball-topped salad is fresh and light but with added comfort and warmth.


As with most salad 'recipes' this is essentially an assembly job and you can experiment with different flavours and ingredients depending on how the mood takes you. In this incarnation, I have jazzed up sausage meat with some cumin seeds and lemon juice and added olives, feta and sun-dried tomatoes to the salad for a kick of flavour.


Warm Meatball Salad with Chickpeas, Feta, Olives and Sun-Dried Tomatoes
Serves 4

olive or rapeseed oil

400g pork sausages or mince of your choice

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 lemon, juice only

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

200g feta, crumbled

1 x 400g tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed

100g olives, chopped

100g sundried tomatoes, chopped

2 large handfuls spinach leaves

1 large handful mint leaves, finely chopped

1 tsp chilli flakes

Split open the sausage skin and squeeze out all the minced meat and place in a bowl. Add cumin and the juice of half the lemon and stir to combine. Using your hands, form 20 equal-sized meatballs.

Heat a frying pan over medium heat and with a drizzle of oil. Fry the meatballs for 3 mins on each side or until lightly browned and cooked through.

Meanwhile, combine the feta, drained chickpeas, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, mint and chilli in a large bowl. Drizzle over a tablespoon of oil and squeeze over the juice of the remaining half a lemon. Toss to combine and then just before serving, top the salad with meatballs.