Quinoa and Chickpea Salad

If you’ve been following The Shrinking Hubby for a while now, you may have realised how much I LOVE quinoa!  This salad is absolutely delicious on its own, or as an accompaniment to fish, chicken or beef.  Try it with my delicious healthy BBQ Chook!

The first time I made it, I enjoyed the left overs with a tin of tuna for the next couple of days for lunch – it was really good.

This salad was inspired by food blogger Phoodie, but I have tweaked it a little bit to suit our own tastes.

What you need:

1 cup quinoa

zest and juice of 1/2 lemon

1 punnet grape/cherry or roma tomatoes – quartered

1 bunch parsley leaves chopped

1/2 red onion finely diced

1 cucumber diced

1 red capsicum diced

1 cup of pinenuts or slivered almonds (whichever you prefer) – toasted.  (I dry roast them in a pan until they become aromatic)

2 tins organic chickpeas rinsed well and drained

150 – 200 grams of goats cheese or feta (whichever you prefer)

Dressing

Whisk together (or shake in a jar)  juice of 1 lemon, salt and pepper, 1 teaspoon sumac, and olive oil (to taste)

How to pull it together:

Bring 1 cup quinoa, 2 1/2 cups water, zest and juice of 1/2 lemon to a boil and simmer (covered) for about 10-15 minutes or until cooked.  If it gets too dry you may need more water.

In a large mixing bowl, mix the onion, diced capsicum, cucumber, parsley, chickpeas and tomatoes.  Add half the toasted nuts (almonds or pinenuts) and half the cheese (crumbled).

Add the quinoa to the bowl and pour the dressing over and mix well.

Decant into your serving dish and top with remaining nuts and cheese to serve.

With Almonds!

With Pinenuts!

Such a healthy and delicious salad – enjoy!

XX

Alix