I miss my salads in the winter.
I love the colour of summertime salads…. adding nasturtiums and borage just adds such brightness to any meal.
This winter seems to have been particularly bleak and grey so I’ve been experimenting with some ‘not green’ salads but using quinoa and noodles. We most definitely need colour in winter! This quinoa salad is delicious with a spicy piece of chicken.
Ingredients:
- 225 gr. quinoa
- 3oo gr. cherry tomatoes halved (or quartered bigger tomatoes)
- Handful of olives
- Red onion – very finely chopped
- 100 gr. St. Tola cheese, crumbled
- A few chopped mint leaves (my mint is just coming on again!)
- Zest and juice of half a lime
- 1/2 teasp. olive oil
- Salt & Pepper
Method:
Prepare your quinoa….. rinse it well under cold running water. Place in saucepan, cover with water, bring to the boil for c. 10 minutes. Drain. Set aside to cool.
Mix your prepared tomatoes, olives, onion and cheese in bowl.
Stir in your now cooled quinoa.
Mix in the chopped mint, zest and juice of lime and olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.
Serve with some spicy chicken.
This quantity is enough for 4 for dinner…. or do as there are only 2 of us, have some for dinner and enough left over for lunch the next day.
Enjoy 🙂
I must get me some quinoa. I know it’s billed as one of those super foods but I’ve never tried it.
I tried it years ago and hated it! Now I love it… I think the secret is rinsing it well before cooking… takes the bitterness out of it.
Looks delicious, Margaret. I’ve been missing my salads, too. My herb window boxes are coming along but only my cress is pickable so far. I can’t wait for fistfuls of mint, basil, coriander and rocket to spice up my salads. I haven’t come across any quinoa here but I’ve seen some millet, so might try it with that.
June there are so many grains out there that I am only learning about… and they all seem to make great salads. Have you heard of Amaranth? This is one I just heard of at the weekend!
M
I got a book last year called “Wholegrains” that goes through a full compendium of grains, how to cook them and how to then use them. I bought Amaranth, but only to sprout for salads – I didn’t cook with it. It’s quite tiny, so not sure how it would work. Millet is easy and tasty, though – I recommend it. J.