Quinoa is a great side dish, but today we look at how to make it the hero of the dish with an incredibly nutritious quinoa salad recipe. There are so many benefits in including quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah) into your daily and weekly food plans. Its very high in fiber, much higher than most grains, very high in protein with all the essential amino acids that we need its often referred to as the 'complete' protein. Being high in minerals that most people don't get enough of, especially magnesium, lets build a healthy quinoa salad recipe around it
Serves 4
Ingredients
- ½ cup quinoa
- 1 small sweet potato, cubed
- 1 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1/3 cup cranberries
- 1/3 cup pine nuts (toasted)
- 3 scallions, sliced
- For the dressing:
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon honey
- ½ teaspoon Himalayan salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
Method
Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
Place the quinoa in a saucepan with 1 cup water. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 15 minutes or until the water has evaporated.
Turn off the heat and let the quinoa sit with the lid on for as long as possible.
Toss the cubed sweet potato with some of olive oil and bake until you can pierce the sweet potato with a fork. This should take about 25-30 minutes depending on the size if the cubes.
For the dressing whisk the olive oil, vinegar, honey, salt, pepper, cumin and cinnamon in a small bowl.
Once the quinoa is dry, break apart the seeds with a fork and transfer to a big bowl and add half of the dressing and mix with a whisk. Continue adding the dressing and whisk.
Add in the sweet potatoes, pine nuts and cranberries and gently mix.
Best served at room temperature
Variations: Add some beans or fresh chili for some spice