This is a tasty healthy and colourful salad that you could make at the weekend and take to work for lunch instead of the usual lettuce tomato and cucumber.

Raw beetroot can stain your hands and clothing so just be careful when cleaning and preparing it if necessary, wear rubber gloves.

A quick shortcut with this recipe is to use tinned lentils rather than dried with saves time cooking them, lentils are very high in fibre but are packed with protein and will help keep you feeling fuller for longer.

Serves 2

Low- calorie spray

4 medium raw beetroot, scrubbed well and tidied

3 medium carrots, peeled and cut into quarters lengthways

1 small red onion, finely chopped

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

1 ½ tsp cumin seeds

100gms tinned puy or green lentils

2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

Bag of salad leaves

Salt and black pepper

Method

Heat the oven to 190C,375F, gas 5. Wrap the beetroot in foil and roast in the oven on a tray for an hour or until tender, when you can easily insert and remove a sharp knife they are cooked.

About 30 minutes before the beetroot is fully cooked, spray another oven proof pan with low-calorie spray, put in the carrots and cumin seeds. Salt and pepper and roast for 20-25 minutes until they begin to caramelise.

Meanwhile, drain and rinse the tinned lentils place them in a glass bowl and warm in the microwave for 3 minutes, while they are still warm stir in salt and pepper, lemon juice and red wine vinegar this will make the dressing.

Allow the beetroot to cool slightly so you can handle them, then slip off the skins, cut them into bite size chunks, put the salad leaves in a serving bowl and scatter over the lentils and top with the beetroot and carrots.