QUINOA CHICKEN SALAD with ORANGE BALSAMIC DRESSING
Quinoa and Chicken Salad with Orange Balsamic Dressing
Its no secret if you follow me at all that I just love fruit in a salad. I have been a bit busy (and I hope you know why!!) and so haven’t written up a recipe in a week or so. Today was scorching hot in Perth and salad was the only option. Quick, painless, not a lot of heat involved and very filling. Gotta love that quinoa…My hungry son couldn’t finish a plate of this in its entirety…I have found the answer at long last, to hollow teenage legs. I was going to say this feeds around 4-5 adults…but I have revised it and think we could go 5-7…or 4-6 with lunch the next day. Enjoy!
NEED:
120g quinoa
1L water
2-3 chicken breast fillets
Fini EVOO as needed
Handful spring onions/shallots
Handful each basil, parsley and mint leaves
1tsp each ground paprika, cinnamon and all spice
2 stalks celery, cut on the angle
Handful dried cherries or craisins
Handful pine nuts, toasted
Sea salt to taste
Salad greens of choice
1 tin chick peas, drained
1 orange, peeled and segmented
Orange Balsamic Dressing
Finely grated zest 1 orange
Juice 1 orange
4og balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp ground cumin
80g Fini EVOO
DO:
Place quinoa into simmering basket and water into Thermomix bowl. Insert basket and steam for 15 min/100ºC/speed 3.
Set aside to cool.
Char grill chicken breast fillets on a grill pan, brushed with EVOO and on an extremely high heat. You could use a BBQ for this or induction max. Cover pan, turn heat down and allow chicken to finish cooking right through. Set aside to rest before slicing into pieces.
Place spring onions/shallots, herbs and spices into Thermomix bowl and chop 2 sec/speed 7.
Add celery and steamed quinoa and stir through 4 sec/Reverse + speed 2.
Place all ingredients except chicken into large salad bowl while you make the dressing.
To make dressing place all ingredients into Thermomix bowl and blend 10 sec/speed 10.
Toss through salad and serve immediately with chicken slices on top.
