Friday Food: Quinoa and Zucchini Salad

It's another salad, and not a puree in sight today!!! I am cooking from the February 2012 Delicious magazine in the Tuesday Night Cooking section. Quinoa is a grain from South America and it is gluten free and very healthy. When cooked it has a nutty texture and tastes interesting in a good way. I bought mine in the health food section of the supermarket and it is organic.

Today I used zucchini from my neighbour's garden, lemons from another friend and local tiny tomatoes. The recipe uses chicken, but I used pork and made just half the recipe. The serving does not look big, but it is surprising filling and you can add more zucchini and tomato at will.

I have banned myself from using a mandolin slicer, so I made my zucchini ribbons with a vegetable peeler very successfully. You will not notice the feta, because I forgot to add it. It is still languishing in the fridge. You could leave out the meat and I think it still makes a delicious meal.

If you get the timing right, this can be ready in about 20-25 minutes, which is relatively speedy.

 

Quinoa and Zucchini Salad   serves 4

• 1 cup white quinoa
• 500-600ml water
• one lemon, zest and juice
• 80ml of extra virgin olive oil
• 1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
• 4 chicken breasts or whatever meat you choose. I used pork steaks.
• 1 zucchini, sliced into thin ribbons
• 250g of cherry tomatoes, halved
• 100g feta, crumbled

Mix the lemon zest, 40ml of the oil and half the chilli in a bowl and then coat the meat. Set aside for a few minutes.

Put the quinoa and the water into a saucepan and bring to the boil over a medium heat. Then simmer for about 10 minutes until almost all the water is absorbed. Set aside to cool.

While the quinoa is cooking, place the meat in a pan, and cook for 6-8 minutes on each side, depending on the thickness of the pieces. Remove and then rest wrapped in foil, or in my case baking paper as I have no foil, for 2 minutes.

Mix the rest of the oil, the lemon juice and the chilli in a bowl to make the dressing.

Wash, top and tail and then make ribbons from the zucchini.

Put the cooled quinoa, zucchini ribbons and halved tomatoes in a bowl and then mix in the dressing and crumble in the feta cheese. Slice the meat and then pile the quinoa salad onto the plate or bowl and top with the meat.

 

And then serve, checking you used all the ingredients!!

Comments

[Jennifer]

"checking you used all the ingredients"

oh, you're such a card.

[Lois]

I must show this recipe to my sister....she loves quinoa. For me it would have to be sans chili.

[RoseRed]

Looks so good and healthy! Does the quinoa retain it's graininess when cooked? (I've never used it). Connor doesn't like this like couscous, I think because of the texture, ao I'm not sure he'd do quinoa.

[Vic]

Oh that zuc salad looks superb... yummo!

[mrspao]

Looks absolutely delicious. I've not tried quinoa yet. I'm sure it must be very filling.

[Kate]

This looks very tasty!

[bells]

i'm new to quinoa. I have used it a couple of times and am quite taken with it. It's also, for those on Weight Watchers, incredibly low in points. This week I'm going to explore making a breakfast cereal like porridge out of it. I hear it's lovely!

[Tinkingbell]

YUM! Remember to wash the quinoa well before cooking, because it has a very alkaline coating on the grain - and this makes it taste bitter and weird!

Happy birthday to the lovely Peri - she looks very happy! and I like the dress. After my discovering of lots of fabric I don't remember ever owning, I must do lots of sewing too!