Red quinoa salad

Hello :) The weather is gorgeous today, meaning I don't really want to be doing my nutrition assignment! It involves comparing a 3 day food record of my own diet and adapting it to suit a dairy free diet and seeing if it meets the criteria of the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating recommendations. It's interesting, but I want to go play in the sunshine!

So whilst I'm procrastinating on a nutrition assignment at least what I've got to share with you today is a highly nutritious recipe (ah ha, see the nice segway?). It's a quinoa salad from the wonderful Lola Berry. Yet another recipe I've been wanting to make for ages, but it meant going to the shops and purchasing a few key ingredients such as apple cider vinegar, beetroot and spinach leaves, but seeing as the weather was so nice it was good to get out!

Recipe: Quinoa salad (adapted from Lola Berry)
Ingredients-
1 cup read quinoa wholegrain, rinsed
6 roma tomatoes, finely diced
100g baby spinach leaves, shredded
1/4 spanish onion, finely diced
1 large beetroot, peeled and grated
juice and zest of 1 lemon
dried cranberries, small handful
1 tablespoon sunflower seeds
1 tablespoon pepita pumpkin seeds
pinch sumac
Method- 
Get one cup of red quinoa and cook the same way you would cook rice or according to packet instructions. To do this, simply put your quinoa into a pot and over it with 1.5 cups of water. As the quinoa grain cooks, you'll notice they look like they grow little tails: this is completely normal! The quinoa gets about triple its original size. When it's ready, the quinoa will look light and fluffy and there shouldn't be any leftover water. This cooking process takes about 15 minutes, with an additional 5 inutes needed to let the quinoa stand and fluff with a fork.

Add the tomatoes, baby spinach, spanish onion, grated beetroot, dried cranberries and sunflower seeds. Toss and add agave dressing. Finish with a sprinkle of pepitas and sumac.

Recipe: Agave Dressing 
Ingredients- 
juice of 1 small lemon
3 tablespoons tamari (wheat free soy sauce)
1 tablespoon agave
splash of apple cider vinegar

Why hello there amazing salad! Well it truly is amazing. I've been a wee bit obsessed with red quinoa of late, and this salad shows it off very nicely. Since the weather is getting warmer I'm loving raw veggies and so the grated beetroot is just delicious! I accidentally forgot to buy cranberries, which would have given it a nice sweetness. The dressing was yum too, I just used soy sauce instead of tamari though. 

I love that this salad looks nice too. Look at all those vibrant colours! 

Do you love quinoa at the moment? What do you like making with it?

Hannah x