Quinoa Chickpea Salad
This Quinoa Chickpea salad works great as a side dish, warm or cold. You can upscale it by adding some protein; chicken, steak strips, or crispy tofu would work well to turn it into a midweek main meal.
It stores great in the fridge for a few days, so double up the quantities and batch cook for a side salad during the week.
Despite looking very similar to it’s rival, cous cous, Quinoa is actually seed, not a grain, (so it shouldn’t upset your tummy). It’s naturally high in protein, keeping you feeling satisfied throughout the day, without weighing you down.
Quinoa Chickpea Salad
Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: 15 mins Total time: 30 mins Portions: 2 Ingredients: 12
INGREDIENTS
½ cup uncooked rinsed quinoa
10g stock pot (the jelly kind)
1 cups water
½ tin of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
2 cups of raw spinach
1 cup of parsley finely chopped
10 cherry tomatoes
¼ cup chopped red onion (optional)
DRESSING
Cesar salad dressing, or make your own: olive oil, apple cider vinegar, garlic and lemon juice.
Freshly ground black pepper & sea salt to taste
DIRECTIONS
Bring the quinoa and water to a boil and add your stock pot. Simmer for about 15 mins until the quinoa has absorbed all of the water. Remove from the heat, add the spinach leaves and cover. Let it rest for about 5 minutes, to give the quinoa time to time to fluff up and the spinach chance to wilt and part cook. Or let the quinoa cool before adding the raw spinach.
Halve the cherry tomatoes. Finely chop the parsley. Chop the red onion and press or mince the garlic.
In a small bowl, whisk up the lemon juice, olive oil, acv and garlic together for the dressing. Season to taste.
Once the quinoa has cooled, combine the chickpeas, parsley, tomatoes and onion into a serving bowl, and drizzle the dressing on top.
Toss until the mixture until it’s thoroughly combined. Season to taste.
If you have any leftover, it keeps really well in the fridge, for about 4 days.
NUTRITION
This salad will give you a good amount of protein, potassium, vitamin C, iron, folic acid, zinc, calcium, vitamin A, lycopene and magnesium.
Enjoy!