Cranberry Chili Salt Quinoa Salad

The mention of a salad usually brings to mind a bowl of mixed greens, however there’s more to a salad than just lettuce and its leafy counterparts!

A quinoa salad makes for a healthy appetiser, side dish or even a delicious meal on its own. If you’ve been looking for an easy, healthy and delicious quinoa recipe, the recipe below may just be it.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup quinoa
• 1 ½ cups water
• 1 whole onion
• ½ red bell pepper
• ½ yellow bell pepper
• 1 cup chopped coriander
• 1 whole carrot
• 1 cup cranberries

For Salad Sauce:

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• Juice from 2 medium-sized limes
• 1 teaspoon chilli salt
• ½ teaspoon curry powder

Method:

Step 1: Cook quinoa perfectly

1. Measure 1 cup of quinoa and put in a fine-mesh drainer, then rinse the quinoa thoroughly. Quinoa is usually coated in a bitter-tasting powder so you need to really make sure that you get it all off.
2. Heat up a saucepan over medium-high heat and add the drained quinoa, stirring it for a few seconds.
3. Add in hot water. For a fluffy texture, my favourite ratio is 1 cup of quinoa to 1.5 cup of water.
4. Put some sea salt and let it boil and cook for about 8 minutes.
5. When it is done, let it cool.

Step 2: Making the salad sauce

1. Prepare a bowl, add all the ingredients for the salad sauce and mix well.*
2. The chili salt and curry powder will bring out the flavour of the salad.

* You can always adjust the ingredients according to your preference

Step 3: Putting it all together

1. First, wash all the salad ingredients (minus the quinoa), and make sure you pat-dry them.
2. Then chop them finely.
3. Prepare a big salad bowl and mix quinoa and all the other ingredients together.
4. Finally put in the salad sauce and mix well.
5. Put in the fridge for up to 4 hours before serving to allow the flavours to develop.