Quinoa is another one of my favourite salad ingredients, it’s so versatile, packs a protein punch and toasted brings another dimension to your salads, I have used two kinds of quinoa, but you can use just white, make sure to serve the salad warm, after all, its winter.
Crispy Quinoa Salad
Servings
4
servingsCooking time
1
hourIngredients
½ a cup of black quinoa
½ a cup of white quinoa
2 cups of water
a bunch of baby cavolo nero
150g of feta cheese
1 tablespoon dukkha
punnet of mixed cherry tomatoes
5 sage leaves
2 tablespoon of capers
tablespoon of ghee or butter
2 tablespoons of olive oil
juice of a lemon
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 200ºC
- Rinse the quinoa and place in separate pots, add each a cup of water and bring to the boil, then simmer for 10/15 minutes, the white quinoa will have a fluffier and larger size than the black, the black quinoa will be smaller and have more of a crunch to it, they are cooked when the water has evaporated and are tender, if they need longer add a little water, don’t overcook or they will turn mushy.
- While the quinoa is cooking, half the baby tomatoes and season with salt and pepper, drizzle with olive oil and toss through the sage leaves, place in an oven dish and roast in the oven for 20 minutes, you want them to brown in colour and burst.
- Once the quinoa is cooked, spread out on a baking tray lined with baking paper and roast for 20 minutes until slightly crispy and brown, stir after 10 minutes.
- When both the quinoa and tomatoes are ready, turn the oven to 75/100c and leave in the warm oven till serving up.
- Heat the ghee in a frying pan on the stove and add your baby cavolo nero, lightly fry the leaves until crispy, this will only take a few minutes, place on an oven proof dish and place in the warm oven ready for plating.
- Take the dukkah and on a small plate press the feta cheese onto the dukkah to coat.
- Once you are ready to serve, take everything out of the oven and arrange on a plate, top with the feta, capers, drizzle with olive oil and the lemon juice.