Helen’s Quinoa Salad

Yum yum in your tum :)

Ingredients

For the Dressing

  • Juice and zest of half a lemon

    Juice and zest of half an orange

    4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

    1 tsp ground coriander

    1 tsp ground cumin

    1 tsp smoked paprika

    1 tsp salt

    1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

    Brown sugar or maple syrup to taste

    Place all in a glass jar and shake to combine.

    Taste and add enough sugar or maple syrup to balance the flavours

Ingredients

For the Salad

1 cup quinoa

½ cup dried cranberries – or seeds of one pomegranate if they are in season

½ cup chopped dried apricots

½ cup pepitas – or chopped pistachios

1 block firm tofu cubed and fried in olive oil

½ bunch mint washed and picked – leave leaves whole

½ bunch coriander washed and picked – leave leaves whole

½ bunch Continental parsley washed and picked – leave leaves whole

1 packet of spinach, or spinach and rocket

Cooke quinoa according to directions below.

Place all ingredients in a large bowl. Toss and dress just before serving.

Tips for perfect Quinoa every time

Qunioa can be a little tricky to cook as it can become mushy, and it can be a little bitter.

I’ve done lots of trial and error to overcome these problems which I am happy to share with

you.

First, Quinoa comes in a couple of varieties, and they all handle differently.

The most familiar are white and the tri-colour. If you look closely at the white varieties, you

may notice that some of the packets of ‘white’ are smaller and darker than the others.

From experience I’ve found that the larger, lighter ‘grain’ white variety is much more likely to

cook down to mush, and the small, slightly darker-in-colour white and the tri-colour blend are

less likely to do so.

To remove the bitter flavour you will need to rinse it. Qunioa has a natural insect-repellent

saponin (soap-like) coating around the seeds and that is what gives it the bitter flavour.