Quinoa salad

Ingredients

1 cup quinoa (whole grains, not flakes)
2 cups cold water
100g green beans, sliced
100g snow peas, sliced
100g asparagus, sliced
50g fresh or frozen peas (defrosted)
1 stick celery, diced
1 avocado, diced
1 Lebanese cucumber, diced

To lightly dress the greens:

1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tbsp red wine vinegar
salt and pepper

For the yoghurt dressing:

100ml Greek yoghurt
juice of one small lemon
handful of mint, chopped
freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp sambal oelek or chilli sauce

Method

To cook the quinoa, rinse it well and place into a small saucepan with 2 cups of water. Bring to the boil and reduce heat, place lid on the saucepan and cook until all the water has evaporated (about 15 minutes). Remove from heat and fluff up using a fork. Leave to cool.

Meanwhile, blanch the beans, snow peas, asparagus and peas by pouring boiling water over them and leaving them to soak for 2 minutes. Refresh in cold running water, drain and place in a large bowl. Add the celery, avocado and cucumber.

Pour over olive oil and red wine vinegar. Season well with salt and pepper and gently toss until all ingredients are coated in dressing.

In a small bowl, combine the yoghurt, lemon juice and mint together with some freshly ground pepper.

To assemble the salad, you need to spread the cooled quinoa over your serving platter and top with the dressed green vegetables. Drizzle the yoghurt dressing over the top and dot with mint leaves and freshly cracked salt and pepper. Add chilli to taste.

Notes:

You could add lots of things to this salad: cherry tomatoes, roast chicken, BBQ prawns, tofu or sliced, seared beef.
Refreshing the veggies in cold water helps keep their colour and crunch, while still being slightly cooked.
This recipe was created by Pip Lincolne for Kidspot, New Zealand’s best recipe finder. .