This salad is full of great flavours and good-for-you ingredients that guarantee a healthier lunchtime to sustain you throughout the afternoon. It's made with black and red quinoa mixed with roast sweet potatoes and red peppers, with spinach or watercress, tasty feta cheese and pomegranate seeds. Recipes by Sue Ashworth on behalf of quinoa from Peru
Preparation: 15 minutes
Cooking: 25 minutes
Serves: 4
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Ingredients:
150g black quinoa
150g red quinoa
2 tsp vegetable stock powder (or 1 vegetable stock cube)
500g sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
1 red and 1 yellow pepper, deseeded and cut into chunks
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
200g pack feta cheese, drained
100g pack pomegranate seeds
4 generous handfuls of young spinach or watercress
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method:
Preheat the oven to 200°C, fan oven 180°C, Gas Mark 6.
Rinse the quinoa in a sieve, then put it into a saucepan with the stock powder or crumbled stock cube. Add double the volume of water. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer gently for 20 minutes.
While the quinoa is cooking, put the sweet potatoes and peppers into a roasting tin and drizzle with the olive oil. Roast for 20-25 minutes, until tender.
Drain any excess liquid from the quinoa, then tip it into a large bowl. Add the roasted vegetables and lemon juice, then leave to cool. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
When ready to pack up, spoon the quinoa mixture into 4 lunch boxes, top each one with broken-up chunks of feta cheese and the pomegranate seeds, then a handful of spinach or watercress. (This will help stop the leaves from wilting, and you can mix everything together at lunchtime).
Cook's tip: You can roast the sweet potatoes and peppers the day before – then just cool, cover and refrigerate for up to 3 days.
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