Looking for an easy way to freshen up your diet? This Mediterranean Quinoa Salad is the perfect a-cote (or even entrée) for when you're looking for some feel good food.
What's so good about it?
Aside from the medley of flavours, the superstars here are the chickpeas and the quinoa. Here's why.
Chickpeas
Vitamin and mineral crammed, chickpeas are rich in iron, folate and zinc, and are an excellent high-protein meat replacement for those observing plant-based diets.
Quinoa
Gluten-free and high in protein, quinoa is one of the only plant foods to contain adequate amounts of all 9 essential amino acids. Did we mention it's also high in fiber, magnesium, B vitamins, iron, potassium and vitamin E? Like we said...superstar.
OK, now onto the recipe:
Prep time should take about 20 minutes
Cook time ranges around 15 minutes
To put this together, you'll need:
For salad -
- 1 cup quinoa
- 1 cup chickpeas
- 1 cucumber
- 20-30 cherry tomatoes
- ½ red onion
- Handful fresh basil
- ½ cup feta cheese
For dressing -
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- ¼ cup olive oil
- Salt + Pepper + Red Chili Flakes
- ¼ tsp cumin
Directions:
- Following quinoa package directions, cook the quinoa over the stove.
- Chop up all the vegetables in bite size pieces.
- Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl.
- Add all the salad dressing ingredients to the bowl and mix well.
- Serve immediately or put in refrigerator for 30 minutes to chill, and then serve!
