I love quinoa! It is super healthy and tastes good as well. And my kids love it to. I just call it rice and they eat it, they don't like food with weird names but they like rice so in my house quinoa is rice :) And quite often I use it instead of rice. It is gluten free and rich in Omega 3. They are high in protein and being married to an athlete that is very important to us. And there are loads more health benefits of eating quinoa and I hope you try it.
This salad is very easy and anyone can do it. You can change the ingredients just the way you want to, clean out the fridge and throw what ever you want in there. Change the basil for some lovely parsley or coriander. You can even use left over salmon or bake some butternut squash.
3-4 chicken breasts (depending on size)
250 ml quinoa
1 ripe avocado
4 tomatoes
4 spring onions
1/4 cucumber
half a block of feta cheese
2 tablespoons lime juice
4 tablespoons cold pressed olive oil
small handful fresh basil
runny honey
salt and pepper
Start by cooking the quinoa and I have a bulletproof way to do it! Put one part quinoa to two parts water in a saucepan. Bring to the boil and lower the heat and let it simmer for 12 minutes. Remove from the heat but keep the lid on and leave for a few minutes. When cooked put into a large bowl and stir with a fork.
Cut the tomatoes into chunks, pour over the lime juice and olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Let this sit while you prepare the rest of the salad.
Put the chicken in a plastic bag and bash the a bit with a rolling pin or what ever you have at hand. Try to flatten them a bit and make them even in size so they cook evenly and quickly. Heat a little oil in a pan and cook the chicken breast on quite a hight heat. Season with salt and pepper. When they are nicely browned you can lower the heat a bit and cook for another 10 minutes or so. Just make sure not to over cook them. When there are around 3-4 minutes left of the cooking time put some good quality honey over them and let them finish the cooking like that. Remove from the pan and leave for 5 minutes before cutting them into thin slices.
Now you can cut the rest of the ingredients and mix in with the quinoa. Add the tomatoes along with the juice, the chicken and crumble the feta over. Drizzle with some olive oil. Tear up the basil over the whole thing. I like serving this with a nice cold garlic dressing. This is perfect on it’s own but you can add some nice and crispy baguette but without the bread this is a perfect healthy meal.
Quick and easy garlic dressing
250 ml creme fraiche, sour cream or greek yoghurt
1 clove garlic, grated or crushed
small handful fresh parsley finely chopped
1 tablespoon runny honey or maple syrup
1/2-1 tablespoon lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste.
Mix everything together and season to taste with salt and pepper, lemon juice and honey. If you can leave it a bit before serving you will get the best result.