Meat-free Monday win - Quinoa Salad

Quinoa salad with chickpeas

Mondays are the worst with trying to conjure up easy and filling dinner ideas. One of us comes late with a hungry Miss in tow. This past Monday it was my turn to make dinner. A friend of mine made this quinoa salad at a braai (barbecue) a while ago, and it is simply delicious. I did not have all the ingredients that the recipe suggested, but it worked just as fine.

Recipe for easy Quinoa Salad

Quinoa Salad

Ingredients: 

1 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed in a fine-mesh colander (I did not rinse mine. Next time...)
2 cups water
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
½ red bell pepper, chopped
½ yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
½ chopped big red onion
1 grated clove garlic
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Preparations:

To cook the quinoa: Combine the rinsed quinoa and the water in a medium saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, then decrease the heat to maintain a gentle simmer. Cook until the quinoa has absorbed all of the water, about 20 minutes, reducing heat as time goes on to maintain a gentle simmer. Remove from heat, cover, and let the quinoa rest for 5 minutes, to give it time to fluff up.

In a large serving bowl, combine the chickpeas, bell pepper, garlic, onion and tomato. Set aside.

Once the quinoa is cooled down (5 minutes does the trick), add it to the serving bowl. Toss it together with the rest of the ingredients. We served the quinoa salad with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. (The original recipe has a salad dressing with olive oil and lemon juice, but's a bit too sour for my taste).

Season with black pepper and salt.

For best flavour, let the salad rest for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

We combined the quinoa salad with gem squashes, carrots, sweet potatoes and broccoli which took 40 minutes in the steamer.

Meat-free Monday plate with quinoa salad and vegetables

This salad keeps well in the refrigerator, covered, for about 4 days, and is great in lunch-boxes.

The original recipe is from here: Best Quinoa Salad Recipe


What do you make for meat-free Mondays?


Related posts:

- Chilli Non Carni - a great vegetarian dish

- Chickpea Tikka Masala recipe

- Easy Black Bean Vegetarian Burger