Quinoa, Chickpea & Carrot Herb Salad

I’m really on an middle-eastern inspired buzz at the moment. It’s so spicy and fragrant and fresh though, it’s quite easy to get carried away with middle-eastern inspired dinners every night of the week.

I BBQ’ed a butterflied leg of lamb over the weekend and I had lots of small sides, such as hummus, cous cous, herb salads, honeyed carrots etc. It was divine to say the least. This salad really was a chance to use up all the leftovers in fridge from the ingredients in making all those sides.

So that is how I came up with my Quinoa, Chickpea & Carrot Herb Salad w/ Cumin Squash Wedges!!!!!! Fresh and invigorating, not to mention extremely healthy. I made extra for lunch the following day. It can be stuffed into a pitta pocket with some feta and natural yogurt and be the envy of all work colleagues with their limp ham salad sambos…..

Ingredients

Serves 4

·         1 drained tin of chickpeas

·         75g of quinoa

·         2 carrots, cut into batons

·         1 lemon

·         1 small carton of natural yogurt

·         1 tomato, deseeded and cut into strips

·         3-4 spring onions, sliced

·         2 tbsp of chopped flat leaf parsley

·         2 tbsp of chopped coriander

·         2 tbsp of chopped mint

·         2-3 tbsp of hummus (shop bought or from this blog)

·         ½ red chilli, sliced thinly

Cumin Squash Wedges

·         ½ a butternut squash, cut into thin wedges

·         2 tbsp of ground cumin

·         Low cal spray

Method

1.       Firstly make the wedges and get the quinoa on the boil.

2.       Preheat the oven to 220 degrees

3.       Lay the wedges on a baking tray and sprinkle with the cumin powder, and spray with low cal spray.

4.       Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes

5.       Boil the quinoa according to packet instructions (normally 15 minutes)

6.       To assemble the salad get a large bowl and add the herbs, carrots, spring onions, tomatoes and chickpeas.

7.       When the quinoa is cooked, rinse under cold water and drain, removed excess moisture with kitchen paper before adding to the salad.

8.       Stir well to distribute the quinoa.

9.       Place some hummus in centre of salad and top with the chilli strips and wedges of lemon.

10.   Serve with natural yogurt (low fat is fine), and the wedges.