This salad is packed with goodness and flavour! Great as a side dish served with grilled chicken breast or sautéed chickpeas or you can add a tin of tuna/salmon or chickpeas to it and serve as a main meal.
You can prep the salad dressing in advance (it gets better after a day or so in the fridge anyways) and whip it up quick smart. People will be blown away by how gourmet this nutritious dish is!
Serves 6 as a side dish and 4 as a main
Salad dressing ingredients
½ red onion, finely sliced
¼ tsp salt
1 tbs sesame oil
1 tsp zest of ginger
1 tbs olive oil
1 tbs apple cider vinegar (white vinegar is fine too)
good dash of balsamic vinegar
juice of ½ lime
zest of 1 lime
1 tsp rice malt syrup (or coconut or brown sugar)
Place in a bowl and combine well, making sure all the onion is covered. Set aside for a minimum of 20 minutes, but a few hours of resting will make it even more delicious and juicy.
Salad ingredients
1 bunch of parsley (stalks removed)
Large handful of fresh mint (stalks removed)
Large handful of fresh chives
1 punnet cherry tomatoes, cut into halves
1 pomegranate, seeds and juice only
1/3 cup quinoa
1 cucumber cut into 1 cm chunks
50 g of pine nuts
Method
Place a small pot of water on the stove and bring to the boil. Rinse the quinoa thoroughly, and add to the boiling water, reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 10-15 minutes. Check the quinoa, you want it ever so slightly crunchy. Drain the quinoa and rinse well with cold water to stop the cooking process. Set aside, allowing all the water to completely drain from it.
Rinse the fresh herbs well, and shake out any excess water. Finely chop, and add to the bowl with the salad dressing.
Add the cucumber, tomato and pomegranate seeds and juice to the bowl, then the drained quinoa and mix well.
Taste and adjust the seasonings as needed. I usually add extra salt and pepper, another dash of balsamic and olive oil and the juice from ½ a lime (cause I like it extra tangy!).
Dry roast the pine nuts over a lot heat in an dry frying pan. Turn them regularly, so they don’t burn. Once they are golden brown, remove from the heat and sprinkle over the top of the salad.
