Quinoa Salad

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Super easy healthy quinoa salad with roast carrots, feta cheese and fresh herbs. A delicious healthy side dish that goes well with any summer dinner. 

Quinoa salad ingredients

• 1 cup of dried quinoa

• pinch of salt

• 4 large carrots – scrubbed and sliced

• 1 tbs olive oil

• drizzle of honey

• 200g feta cheese – cut into cubes

• 2 handfuls of fresh herbs – I used flat leaf parsley, coriander and basil

• Salad dressing of your choice – I used simple Italian style

• lemon  wedges to serve

How to make quinoa salad

• Cook the quinoa as per the packet instructions – place on one side to cool once cooked

• Heat the oven to 200C

• Toss the carrot slices in the olive oil and honey – season with salt and black pepper to taste.

• Roast on a baking tray in the oven for around 20 minutes – or until cooked

• Once cooked – assemble the salad – gently stir together the quinoa, carrots, feta and herbs pour over the quantity of dressing you like and fluff up the quinoa salad just using a fork.

• Serve with lemon wedges

What is quinoa?

Quinoa (pronounced keen-wah) is actually a seed!

A protein packed little seed that’s super easy to cook and makes a great healthy alternative to pasta or rice.

Quinoa has a slight nutty taste and it’s easy to flavour up and use in recipes. 

How do you cook quinoa?

Well it’s actually really simple! 

• First rinse it well under cold running water.

• Add it to a pan with double the quantity of water – I add a pinch of sea salt flakes too

• Bring to the boil then simmer with the lid on for around 15-20 minutes – (check the packet as some types do take longer) 

• The quinoa is done once the liquid is absorbed – and the little seeds tender. 

• Drain using a sieve – it’s too fine for a colander.

How to make quinoa taste good

Okay I won’t lie – plain boiled quinoa is bland and pretty tasteless – you really need to flavour it up to make it good to eat. 

So add lots of fresh herbs, maybe spices, mix in a good dressing and stir through tasty salad extras. 

Of course… you could always cheat and cut out the faff of cooking it – just pick up a couple of sachets of the microwave quinoa – it cooks in minutes and they’re all pre-flavoured. 

Flavour up your quinoa salad your way

• Try adding roast peppers, courgettes or aubergines.

• Switch the feta cheese for grilled halloumi

• Add some spice with pinch of red chilli flakes or freshly chopped chillies

• Add some chorizo, bacon or prawns

• Skip the Italian dressing and pick a different one to suit

You might also like our easy quinoa stuffed pepper recipe here 

More salad recipes for you to try…

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• Simple salad with lemony pesto dressing 

• Courgette salad with mint and chilli 

• BLT pasta salad 

Get lots of fresh and healthy salad recipes here

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