I decided to experiment a little with quinoa as it is meant to be such a healthy ingredient. I don’t know about you but I definitely feel and look so much better when I eat healthily. It honestly is that amazing feeling of being completely nourished from within, it even makes your skin glow! Quinoa (pronounced keen-wa) is wheat-free and a complete protein so makes it perfect for vegans. Quinoa has unsurprisingly grown in popularity over the last few years, it is actually a seed and has a slightly nutty flavour. To avoid any bitter taste it is essential that you run the quinoa under water through a sieve a few times before cooking.

So back to my delicious quinoa salad, which is actually really filling and tasted divine…

Ingredients for 4 portions (it keeps in the fridge so perfect for lunch the next day or so too)

• 200g quinoa
• 600ml water
• Vegetable stock cube
• 1 pepper (I used yellow)
• 2 spring onions (or half a red onion)
• Few mushrooms (cooked in a little garlic oil)
• Few cherry tomatoes
• 100g feta cheese
• Juice of half a lemon
• Pomegranate seeds
• Toasted flaked almonds
• Optional: can add mint or basil leaves

You could remove the feta to make it a complete vegan meal or swap any of the above, perhaps add chopped cucumber or courgettes, or sultanas/raisins, I am sure lots of other ingredients would work well!

Cook the quinoa in the water, with the vegetable stock cube, for approximately 15-18 minutes, drain well and leave to cool.

Add the rest of the ingredients and mix together.

Job done!

You can use this lovely salad as a meal on its own or use as a tasty low-carb accompaniment. It would work well as a summer salad. I often enjoy this as an easy option for lunch to take to work as I can just pop it in the fridge. It’s quite surprisingly filling and tastes so good!

I hope you enjoy it, please let me know in the comments, or any recommendations for ingredient swaps. I would love to know what else would work!