Total Prep Time 20 minutes

Ingredients

• ½ cup quinoa
• 1 ½ cups water
• 1 lemon, rind and juice
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 punnet of cherry tomatoes
• 100g of fresh spinach
• ½ red onion
• 1 avocado
• ½ mango (optional)
• ½ block goats cheese or feta
• Fresh herbs, parsley, basil or mint
• 1 tablespoon of honey
• salt & pepper for seasoning

 

Method

1. In a medium sauce pan, combine the quinoa with the water and add a pinch of salt. Bring up to a boil and then let simmer for roughly 10 minutes or until quinoa is ready.
2. In a large bowl, add lemon juice and rind from an entire lemon, olive oil, honey and finely chopped fresh herbs. Mix together dressing and then add in chopped red onion, sliced cherry tomatoes, chopped up spinach and roughly chopped up avocado and mango. Mixed together well until all the dressing covers the salad.
3. Add in the quinoa as it has cooled a little bit and mix in well.
4. Season salad with salt and pepper and add crumbled goats cheese or feta cheese on top of it as garnish.

 

Benefits

Quinoa is a good option to add into salads as it is very high in fibre and an excellent source of protein which is good if you don’t want to use meats or eggs in your recipe. Beans is also a great option for protein. Quinoa is also gluten free.

Make sure salads have oil added such as olive or flaxseed, it is a good way of increasing good fats. You can even add nuts and seeds to salads, another great source of natural fats added to your diet.

Eat The Rainbow – Eating a wide variety of different color fruit and vegetables allow you to maximize the amount of nutrient content you consume as each different color carries a different nutritional component.

Enjoy!