Quinoa, Antipasto and Goat’s Cheese Salad

Hello! You might remember me from such films as “that blogger who went on holiday”. 

I’m here with another post from the archives that I posted as a farewell a few years ago when we took a trip to Japan. I had my very lovely neighbour and blogging powerhouse Nikki from Styling You do a guest spot with a salad she made for me one night when I went over for dinner. I had never had quinoa before, on account of it sounded like hippie food. But then I remembered I actually liked hippie food and she made this and I was converted.

Take it away, Nikki and Stacey of December 12, 2011!

Greetings!

Today is the day – the one where I am finally reunited with one of my favourite dishes. After all this time, a dish that I haven’t made myself in a vain attempt to recreate a million moments I miss very much.

HUZZAH!

And while I’m gone, you may be bereft of my posting presence. Devastating, no? A whole week. Well, in order to keep you from throwing yourselves into a pit marked “despair”, I have gone and found you a suitable replacement. Stylish gal, blogger extraordinaire, champagne-lover, and excellent friend… none other than my (yes, real life) neighbour, Nikki of Styling You.

She made me this salad last week and I proposed marriage.

****

We’re very much a barbecuing type of family at this time of year. Love keeping the heat out of the kitchen, so to speak.

And I love a good salad.

Not just a toss some lettuce, tomato and cucumber into a bowl type of salad. No, I like my salads with a twist. I like them to be tasty meals in themselves. I like them to be colourful and I like them to cover off a few healthy eating bases as well.

Last week I had Veggie Mama and St Murphy over for dinner, and I made my quinoa, antipasto and goat’s cheese salad. Veggie Mama has been on at me to give her this recipe for like… forever.

Now, if you’re scratching your head and still back at the word quinoa, don’t worry. I hadn’t even heard of this super dooper grain until a weekend at a luxe health retreat almost four years ago. Now, we’d eat it at least once every week. And it’s available in your local supermarket (I used to have to hunt it down at health food stores).

Jules over at The Stone Soup has the lowdown on why quinoa has earned its superfood status, but in a nutshell, it’s gluten-free, low in carbohydrates, and high in protein.

Yep, that adds up to one very satisfying meal ingredient.

Quinoa, Antipasto and Goat’s Cheese Salad

Ingredients:

2 cups quinoa
6 cups water
handful baby spinach
handful baby rocket
Mint, shredded (to taste)
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1 jar of char-grilled vegetables (or grill your own, diced)
4 cubes of marinated goat’s cheese
Drizzle of olive oil from goat’s cheese jar

Method:

Prepare quinoa via absorption method. I use my Thermomix, you could use a rice cooker or saucepan (bring water to boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 15 minutes).

In a large salad bowl toss baby spinach, rocket, mint, lemon zest, char-grilled vegetables or antipasto vegetables.

Add warm or cool quinoa (I like warm as I like how it melts the goat cheese). Crumble in the goat’s cheese, pour on lemon juice and drizzle oil to taste and desired consistency.

Toss in bowl and serve.

Serves 8 as a side dish; 6 as a meal.

Do you cook with quinoa? Have a recipe you’d love to share? Or do you have a salad that always gets two thumbs up when you serve it up at home?

You’ll find me blogging over here and on Twitter here.

Ermagherd you guys! Quinoa AND a Thermomix! I’ve hit blogging paydirt!

Also: Twitter was so big back then. Look, not even a mention of Facebook. We didn’t even have them for our blogs! I miss you Twitter. Come back.