I was quite inspired when reading @carolynstahl's post for Hive Top Chef. I love salads too, and since it was almost lunchtime around here, I thought "why not make a good salad?".
However, like Carolyn, I believe that a nice salad goes far beyond lettuce, tomato, and cucumber. So, for this salad, the base is quinoa, a super food that brings a lot of flavors and a very interesting consistency to the dish.
So, here follows my salad recipe for Hive Top Chef.
Let's get to the kitchen!
Ingredients (for 2 people)
To make this quinoa salad, with beets and cucumber, you will need:
½ cup cooked quinoa
1 cucumber chopped into small pieces without peel
1 grated beet
Parsley
In case you want to improve this salad, here are two suggestions. If you like to mix sweet and salty, chopped mango goes very well. Another suggestion is to add avocado to give it a creamy texture. I didn't have any of these ingredients, so I made the simplest version.
For the sauce, you will need
1 finger of grated ginger
1 tablespoon of toasted sesame oil
juice of ½ lime
juice of ½ orange
4 tablespoons of soy sauce
Directions
The first step is to cook the quinoa. Heat up the pan, add the quinoa, and stir until it gives off a very characteristic aroma that reminds you a little bit of toasted almonds. The longer you leave it on the heat, the browner it will be.
Then add 1 cup of boiling water. I didn't add salt, because the salad dressing already contains soy sauce, which is quite salty.
While the quinoa is cooking, chop the ingredients. Chop the cucumber, grate the beets, and prepare the dressing that is the big secret of this recipe!
The preparation of the sauce is super simple and boils down to mixing the ingredients. After putting everything together in a container set it aside.
The quinoa takes about 20 minutes to prepare. Remove from heat and let it cool.
When the quinoa is cool, mix the beets and the cucumber, add the dressing, and the quinoa, and stir so that all the ingredients are incorporated into the flavor.
This salad can be served as a main dish or even as a side dish. It is very nutritious and wonderful!
Hope that you enjoyed and try this at home!
See ya in the kitchen!
