Hot quinoa salad
I'm making the best of the last few weeks of summer, it seems to have got decidedly cooler and more autumnal recently, but today the sun has come back out which makes me happy!
There is less than one week left enter my Steenberg's Organic giveaway bundle, check out the original post here but I have also included the entry box at the bottom below for quick reference.
I thought it would be great to do a post about some of the ingredients they are offering in the bundle, lots of beautiful organic spices in cute glass jars. I just loooove these glass jars and would love them even more lined on a shelf in my kitchen! Alas, my kitchen is not so neat and tidy and so mine are stacked up in a box in the pantry cupboard :-)
First up.... Hot quinoa salad.
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. I created this recipe for The Real Food Source too since they have added organic tricolour quinoa to their range (cue much excitement from me!) The colour and the subtleties of favours are beautiful.
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 using Steenbergs Organic Panch Porah (once of the spices in the bundle), This is a blend of organic brown mustard , organic nigella , organic cumin seeds , organic fenugreek and organic fennel coming together in a unique mix of diverse flavours. I loved the varieties of seeds and the fact that it wasn't simple a ground up spice mix.
You could really you can use any blend of your favourite herbs or spices, dressing, salad leaves and other veggies as you see fit...it's a very versatile salad! 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've made.
I've used their ingredients in many of my recipes in the past...
recovery burgers
choc orange goji bites
There is also a jar or organic turmeric in the bundle. Perfect for these 'recovery burgers' so called due to turmeric poweful anti-inflammatory properties.
Or if you want something a little sweeter... try using the Organic orange extract (with oil instead of alcohol) to make one of my favourite sweet treats- choc orange goji bites!
Recipe: Hot quinoa summer salad
Serves 2
Ingredients:
- 1 cup cooked 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 tahini or other nut butter
- 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.
Enter the giveaway here!
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