Lovely Quinoa and Chickpea Salad

Hello Dear Reader,

As I mentioned last week, the boys went up north for a week, to experience a fishing charter, they had a great time and have bought back lots of lovely fresh fish for us to enjoy. So that means we will be eating a lot more fish in the near future.To that end I wanted to find a few new salads to serve with pan fried fish, this is the latest one that I made and it's a corker.

It has lots of wonderful fresh flavours with the bonus of protein from the chickpeas and quinoa, it is kinda similar to my "Just a Bit Different, Quinoa Tabbouleh" but with more ka-pow in terms of flavours. I also upped the flavour by including the zest of the lemon in the dressing, it always seems such a waste not to grate the zest off the citrus because that's where all the aroma and amazing flavour of the lemon is. I still have a few home grown lemons that I am using up and the rind is quite thin but still outrageously delicious.

It is a sinch to make too, just a bit of chopping of veggies, rinsing and cooking the Quinoa, make and shake the dressing, bring them all together and this lovely salad is done.

Ingredients for Lovely Quinoa and Chickpea Salad, clockwise from top right-1 cup of Quinoa cooked in the usual way, 1 smallish red onion, finely chopped, 1 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed, zest of one lemon (the juice goes in the dressing), 1 medium red capsicum, chopped, 1 Lebanese cucumber, finely chopped and 2 cups finely chopped parsley

Ingredients for the dressing, from right-1/4 cup oil preferred oil (I use rice bran oil) 2 cloves of garlic, grated on a microplane, 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar, juice of one lemon and a good grind of salt and pepper

In a large bowl add the red onion, can of chick peas, lemon zest, red capsicum, cucumber and parsley

Add all dressing ingredients to a glass jar with a tight fitting lid and shake, shake, shake

Mix salad thoroughly 

Top with cooked Quinoa, pour over shaken dressing

And thoroughly mix to combine, let sit for 10 minutes or so before serving to let the flavours mingle

Colourful, delicious and good for you

This made quite the big salad, we had it over two nights, both times with fish and I think it was even better the next night as all the flavours had mingled beautifully. 

Make it today and if you do, don't forget to send a photo to my "Did you make it, show us" page using my email-fionachain@gmail.com

Have the loveliest of days

💚Fi

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