Easy Hot Quinoa Salad

Post by Jo @ Including Cake

This isn't so much of a recipe...more of an idea to get you going with the wonderful new organic tricolour quinoa!

I use quinoa so often in all manor of recipes both sweet and savoury. It's my go to choice since it's both gluten free and protein rich, but also has great texture and a mild flavour. My favourite options are quinoa cookies and quinoa porridge but sometimes it's nice to keep it simple and let the natural slightly nutty flavour do the talking. The tricolour quinoa is beautiful in this respect as you really appreciate the subtleties of the flavours as well as the beautiful colour combinations.

This was a simple meal and I whipped it up one lunchtime a few weeks back in the peak of summer. A quinoa salad is a perfect light meal, great for lunches. I have provided a quick recipe below, but really you can use any spices, dressing, salad leaves and other veggies as you see fit... for example roasted cherry tomatoes, white beans and lightly steamed chopped broccoli florets would have worked equally well. This is simply one of many quinoa salad combos I make. 

Recipe: Hot quinoa summer salad

Serves 2

Ingredients: 

• 1 cup cooked tricolour quinoa (1/2 cup uncooked)
• 1 small courgette- sliced into half moons
• 1 small leek- sliced finely
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• 2 large handfuls watercress (spinach or a rocket mix would also be great)
• 2 tsp almond or cashew paste (or other nut/seed paste such as tahini)
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp mixed herbs

Method:

Cook the quinoa. 

Meanwhile saute the leek and courgette for 5 minutes then add the nut paste, lemon juice and herbs with a splash of water to create a very light sauce for the veggies. Continue to cook for a further few minutes whilst also cooking the peas in a separate pan. 

Add everything to the quinoa and mix to coat. Serve onto two plates leaving a gap in the centre to pile up some leaves such as watercress.