Difficulty 2/5
I love quinoa in every presentation: cooked, crunchy, in a salad, as a carb instead of rice, in soups… you name it. And this one is hands down my favourite quinoa salad. It has lots and lots of flavour, colour, and it’s not at all complicated to make. I think that it’s great on its own but it would also work amazing at a barbecue next to a piece of meat.
A really nice cooked quinoa is the base to this salad. Overcooked and sticky quinoa is really not nice at all. It’s exactly like cooking rice. And like rice, you can also add lots of different flavours to quinoa.
For this salad it was lemon zest but you could also add minced garlic, herbs, etc. I think that for a salad citrus zest is perfect.
I wasn’t feeling very well when I cooked this and so I didn’t make a video for my YouTube channel for this recipe. Instead though, I’m giving you step by step photos so you can make the recipe without any problem.
My absolute favourite quinoa salad
Ingredients
For the quinoa
- 100 g quinoa + 200ml water
- zest from 1/2 a lemon or lime
- 10 ml olive oil extra virgin
- salt to taste
For the confit cherry tomatoes
- 100 g cherry tomatoes cut in half
- 50 ml olive oil
- 1 bayleaf
- 1 garlic clove crushed
- salt and pepper to taste
For the spinach
- 100 g spinach throughly washed
- 50 ml olive oil
- to taste salt
- 1 garlic clove
For the mushrooms
- 100 g mushrooms lavados
- 10ml olive oil
- to taste salt and pepper
As a garnish
- 50 g toasted hazelnuts. Some chopped, some whole. or other nut. Almonds, walnuts and pecans work nicely
- zest from half a lemon or lime
Vinaigrette
- 1/2 tsp dijon mustard (don't worry, it doesn't taste "mustardy")
- salt and pepper to taste
- juice from 1 lemon or lime
- olive oil from the confit cherry tomatoes plus more to adjust consistency
Instructions:
For the quinoa:
1. With quinoa, the first step is always to wash it. This is because there’s saponin inside it and that makes it taste bitter and is not very good for you if ingested in large quantities. Even if the package says it’s pre-washed, go ahead and wash it more. It can’t hurt, right? So wash it under running water until the water comes out clean.
2. Rinse it nicely and then it goes into a pot with the pre-heated olive oil at medium heat and also with the lemon (or lime) zest and salt. Stir it around as it heats up for a minute.
3. Then, we add the water. As a rule of thumb you always add double the amount of water as or quinoa to get the perfect fluffy finish. We put it again on medium heat until it starts boiling. Then we put the lid on, turn the heat to a minimum (say a 2 / 10) and let it cook for a good 15-20min or until you see it’s completely dry. This process of cooking applies every time you’re cooking quinoa: doesn’t matter if it’s for a quinoa salad like this one, to eat it as rice or something else.
4. Set aside and let cool.
For the confit cherry tomatoes:
1. I love confit cherry tomatoes and use them in lots of preparations. We put everything inside an oven-safe dish (make sure the cherry tomatoes are facing up or they will let go of too much juice) and pop it in an oven at 180C for about 15-20min or until you see they have bloated and are soft.
2. Let cool and take out the tomatoes. Safe the oil for the vinaigrette later on.
For the spinach:
1. Rinse the spinach under running water throughly as it comes with lots of dirt. If your spinach is the regular version you need to take out the stalk as it’s too fibrous. This is not necessary if it’s baby spinach though. To do this you fold the leave in half leaving the stalk to one side and then pull from the bottom up. This will release it compleately all the way to the top.
2. Heat olive oil in a pan on medium heat with a crushed garlic clove inside. This will give our spinach a very slight flavour of garlic. You can leave it out if you wish. Then we add the spinach along with the salt immediately. This is because the salt helps preserve that intense green colour in the leaves. Move the spinach around until it’s all wilted. Don’t overdo the cooking or they’ll turn brown. Then remove and place on top of kitchen paper so it can absorb all the liquid and oil.
3. Once at room temperature squeeze with your hands to make it even dryer and chop it up. Mix it with the cooked quinoa.
For the mushrooms
1. Cut off the bottoms of the mushroom and slice the tops. Keep the bottoms to flavour stocks.
2. Heat oil on medium-high heat and add the sliced mushrooms. First do half the slices until they’re done and then remove them and add the rest. This allows them to get a golden tinge whereas if you put everything in they boil in the water they release.
3. Remove and let cool to room temperature.
For the vinaigrette:
Mix the mustard, salt, pepper and lemon or lime in a bowl with a whisk. Slowly add the olive oil from the tomatoes in until you have a nice and even vinaigrette. Adjust with more olive oil if necessary. If you would like to make another vinaigrette that you have in mind, by all means go for it. Just make sure it has a nice level of acidity which goes great with this quinoa salad.
That’s it! A beautiful and delicious quinoa salad that will convince any salad-hater to have a bite. I think the magic in it is that everything is cooked differently and that gives it extra layers of flavour.
Share the picture of this recipe on Instagram or Facebook and tag me on them when you do 🙂
I also don’t want to leave without mentioning that the hazelnuts used in this recipe are from a Chilean brand called South Nuts! They make home deliveries and are absolutely spectacular.
