White Quinoa Salad
As longstanding friends of Essential Trading we were honoured to be asked to contribute to this celebration of Vegan Cookery. For 34 years our Thursday team (see photo) has been receiving goods from drivers like Dave, Rich, Quentin and of course, our old mate Bone (bless him). We go way back and it has been great working with such devoted people - Punky, Janet, Sara to name but a few..
The ingredients for this recipe come from the Essential "larder" along with organic veg from our shop. It was put together to celebrate our friend’s 75th birthday, who’s partner Linda worked for us for a very long time and is sadly missed. She would have loved this salad. So it was made for 12 to 18 people sharing.
Ingredients:
Organic veg:
Method:
Cook Quinoa 1 part quinoa to 1.5 parts water for 10 to 12 minutes, turn off heat and let stand for another 10 to 15 minutes with the lid on.
Toast the pinenuts with a pinch of salt.
Chop the asparagus into short lengths and steam for 2 minutes.
Chop the onions garlic courgette into small pieces and fry in some olive oil with a teaspoon of sumac and the same of za’atar salt and pepper until just cooked.
Add in the black beans and sweetcorn and olives mix together well and leave to cool.
Chop the coriander and apple and spring onions.
Make a small salad dressing 1 part vinegar to 3 parts oil. about 250mls
In a large mixing bowl combine the cooked Quinoa with everything else seasoning to taste.
Pour in the salad dressing and stir together.
Add another tablespoon of Za’atar over the top with the juice and rind of a lemon, then pile onto a plate in a cone shape. Decorate with cherry tomatoes lemon slices and vegan sliced chorizo (as in the photo).