Lime, Mint & Olive Quinoa Salad

Grains and Seeds Middle Eastern Pulses Quinoa Salad Salads Summer West African

June 08, 2015

This recipe for a quick but delicious quinoa salad, from our friend Bintu Hardy’s blog Recipes from a Pantry, has become a regular favourite for our deliciously nutty and light British Quinoa.

Take a helping of one of my favourite Sierra Leonean side dishes – aka groun soup (with a lime and onion base). Add in a dash of the Lebanese food I also grew up with. Then top it up with some quinoa. And there you have it.

A minty lime olive quinoa salad.

The quinoa really does carry these flavours very well. And it can be prepared in advance and chilled for a quick brunch or supper side dish. I reckon it would be fab served alongside some homemade Labneh and pitta bread. I meant to have the salad you see in the picture with some sweet roasted butternut squash and lamb. But I just took a break from food photography, sat down and ate it all. Just like that. Well, apart from the 1 tsp I saved for OH’s to taste test.

This is suitable for the 5:2 diet as one portion is approx 152 calories if serving six or 227 calories if serving four.

Serves: 4 to 6 | Cooking and Preparation: 20 minutes

Ingredients

170g (1 cup) wholegrain quinoa - or try our smoked quinoa
480ml (2 cups) water or stock
1 tsp olive oil
Salt (optional)
2-3 tbsp lime juice to taste
1 tbsp olive oil
A large handful of fresh mint
A quarter of a small red onion
6 radishes
2 tomatoes
16 olives
2-3 tbsp lime juice to your taste
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt
ground black pepper

Method

First cook the quinoa.
Pour the quinoa into a fine mesh sieve.
Rinse under a running tap and thoroughly wash the quinoa (rubbing through it with your fingers) for 3 mins to remove any bitter outer coating.
Let the quinoa drain for a few mins to remove the excess liquid.
Place the quinoa into a pot and add in the water, oil and salt and bring to the boil.
Reduce to a simmer, cover and let cook for 15 mins – you will see tiny spirals coming out of the seeds.
Remove the quinoa from the heat, open and fluff the grains and let stand for about 10 mins.
Finely chop the mint, red onion, radishes, tomatoes and halve the olives.
Then mix these in to the cooled quinoa along with the lime juice and olive oil.
Adjust seasoning and serve.

Notes: You can add more or less herbs, lemon juice etc.

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