THERMOMIX SEEDED QUINOA SALAD

Seeded Quinoa Salad

Okey Dokey, dear reader,

If you haven’t checked in on Cooking with Tenina on Facebook, there has never been a better time than now to join the ever growing band of followers who make my days all the brighter. We are running our first competition, and it is so fun! Click over to here to see some other entries, but briefly the story is as follows;

• You must post any picture with the words ‘I like Cooking with Tenina’ somewhere in the pic, onto the Facebook page. It can be Instagram, Picnik, iPhone or any other way that floats your boat.
• You then share that on your own Facebook wall and ask your friends to go and ‘like’ or comment on your picture on our wall @ Cooking with Tenina.
• The picture with the most ‘likes’ plus comments will win the prize pack which consists of an annual eSubscription to Trends Magazines as well as a very glamorous oven glove….total value of over $60! Not bad for starters…and yes folks, we are just getting started.

Now to the real reason you are here; To LIKE my healthy recipe….not often that I indulge in healthy recipes so frequently, but here I am dishing up another one! I am loving quinoa right now, it is filling, I know it is good for me, plus it is tasty and low carb…I eat it for breakfast, I now eat it for dinner in the form of this salad amongst others. There are many varieties available but this salad calls for white, red and black.Very pretty and so tasty, and did I mention, so low carb…it ticks all the boxes! You can really shake it up with as many options as you like, so it is widely adaptable to all tastes and palates…go ahead, you can quinoa!

NEED:

170g mixed coloured quinoa as desired, soaked in enough water to cover for minumum 30 minutes

Water for steaming

1 Lebanese cucumber, diced

1 red capsicum, diced

4 spring onion/shallots, sliced on the angle

100g dried cranberries

3 sticks celery, sliced

100g mixed toasted seeds, (I used sunflower, sesame, pepitas and linseed)

100g peanuts, roasted

Few Italian parsley leaves

Few handfuls mixed salad greens

Dressing;

1-2 cloves garlic (20g)

60g tamari or soy sauce

80g fresh lemon juice

100g EVOO

DO:

Drain quinoa and place into simmering basket. Fill Thermomix bowl to 1L mark with water and set basket into bowl.

Steam quinoa 15 min/100ºC/speed 2. Remove basket from bowl and set aside to cool.

Meanwhile prepare the rest of the salad by combining all remaining salad ingredients, except salad greens in large bowl.

Make dressing by placing all ingredients into Thermomix bowl and blending 20 sec/speed 8.

Pour over prepared salad and add quinoa. Toss gently, arrange on top of bed of salad greens.

Garnish with additional seeds, nuts, spring onions etc.

This is fantastic with BBQed or roasted meat, as part of a buffet, or just as a light lunch with crusty bread. Enjoy….you can almost feel a rousing chorus of Kum Bah Ya coming on as you eat this oh-so-healthy veggie treat! Now go take that picture and get it up on the wall before Wednesday night 5pm WST….(that’s GMT + 8 )…and yes, I’ll mail it anywhere! Go on…channel your inner creative and show me what you can bring to this comp!