My Quinoa and Antipasti Salad – Revisited

Following my previous quinoa salad recipe, which was quickly devoured (ok, especially by me), I’ve decided to make it again but with a different twist.

Now with pumpkins, sweet potatoes, basil, greens and Parmesan, it tastes completely different (in a different, good way.)

We ate this salad with salmon, but I think it could also make a great vegetarian meal by itself

Ingredients:

- 1 cup quinoa

- 2 cups water

- 1 large sweet potato

- About 500 gr pumpkin

- A generous bunch of chopped fresh basil leaves

- A generous bunch of micro green leaves, or other baby leaves

- Grated Parmesan cheese

- Salt and pepper

- Olive oil

- Lemon squeeze

- Rosemary and sage

Preparations:

- Peel the pumpkin and sweet potato and slice into thin slices (about 1 cm thick).

- Put the slices in a baking dish, pour some olive-oil on them and give them a nice rub to cover them in olive-oil from both sides.

- Add some rosemary and sage leaves and sprinkle with coarse sea-salt and grounded black pepper.

- Put in the oven for about 30 minutes, 200 deg. Celsius, on grill.

- After 15 min. of cooking, flip the sweet potato and pumpkin slices upside down and continue cooking. If you see they’re getting too dry, you may add some more olive-oil.

- Meanwhile, cook the quinoa in water and let it cool for a while.

- Chop a nice bunch of fresh basil leaves and add to the quinoa, add some micro greens, or other greens, such as arugula or baby leaves.

- Season the quinoa salad with lemon squeeze, olive oil and salt and pepper to taste.

- Add grated Parmesan cheese to the quinoa.

- When the antipasti are out of the oven, let them cool for a little while,

- Then arrange them nicely on a plate and top with the prepared quinoa salad.

-Nom nom nom.

Pandas like quinoa too.

Quinoa and Antipasti Salad

Light but filling summer lunch. Ingredients:

– 1 red pepper

- 1 zucchini

- 1 aubergine

- 1 cup quinoa (I used organic tricolor quinoa)

- 1.5 cups water

- 2 tomatoes

- 1 cucumber

- a bunch of parsley

-1 lemon

- Olive oil

- Salt and pepper

- Coarse salt and grounded black pepper

- Tahini (raw tahini mixed with lemon juice and a bit of water to make tahini sauce).

Preparations:

Heat the oven to 200 deg Celsius on grill.

Slice the red pepper, zucchini and aubergine to slices about 1 cm thick and place in an oven dish, sprinkle with olive oil, coarse salt and grounded black pepper.

Put in the oven for about 15 minutes, turn the vegetables slices upside down and put back in the oven for another 15 minutes or until they’re cooked.

Cover the quinoa with water and let soak for about 15 minutes. Rinse under the sink.

Boil 1.5 cups of water and add in the quinoa, cook for about 15 minutes, until the quinoa is soft and turns transparent.

Put the quinoa in a large bowl and let it cool.

Add in chopped fresh vegetables: the tomatoes and cucumber, and the parsley.

Season with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Add the antipasti on top and finish with the Tahini sauce.