Recipe: Quinoa & Grilled Bell Peppers Salad

Since I’ve been having quinoa, almost on daily basis, for the past few weeks I always am on the look for new ways of eating it. My favourite quinoa dishes are almost always salads and this one, with grilled bell peppers a.k.a. capsicums. On the day I took these pictures I only had some yellow bell peppers in the fridge but my absolute favourites are grilled red bell peppers.

Obviously the star ingredient in this dish is the quinoa which I have prepared and kept in the fridge in advance, all I had to do is take it out of the fridge and fluff it with a fork and it was ready.

http://frescohealth.com/cbd-oil/ Ingredients – serves 2:

1 bell pepper or capsicum, halved – 1.5 cups of  http://ccritz.com/radio.php COOKED quinoa (about 240g cooked quinoa) – half a can of red kidney beans, preferably organic – half a can of sweet corn, I use the one without added sugar- a cucumber, quartered, a bunch of mint leaves, chopped – a bunch parsley, chopped – a dollop of mustard- a splash of olive oil – a splash of lemon juice, salt & pepper – a dash of smoked paprika – 50g goat’s cheese (optional)

How to?

Start with the quinoa. If you don’t have ready-to-eat quinoa in the fridge you can prepare it easily as I’ve written before in my quinoa with broad beans & dill recipe. Basically for every measure of quinoa you use double the amount water with a sprinkle of salt, put them together in a pan and bring to a boil on high heat then reduce the heat to medium-low and let simmer for 15 minutes until all the water is gone and the quinoa is double in size. Here is a video I found on Gcalories blog that explains it better (link).

Starring next in this delicious recipe dish is the bell peppers, yellow only in this recipe and whatever colour you feel like if you decide to make it. I washed the bell peppers, cut them in half, and placed them on a grill until their skin was scorched.

Once the peppers are all grilled and nicely browned and softened, take them off the grill and place them in a plastic bag. This helps separate the blackened flesh from the peppers.

Cut and slice the grilled peppers thinly, set aside and prepare the dressing. Nothing much to it, just a dollop of mustard with lemon juice, a dash of olive oil, freshly crushed peppers, salt, and smoked paprika. Whisk together and keep aside.

Now all you have to do is mix quinoa, the grilled bell peppers, the chopped herbs, the kidney beans, the sweet corn, and the dressing together and you are done.

Fast, quick, takes less than 20 minutes to prepare and is indeed low fat and healthy. Goat’s cheese and grilled bell peppers make an excellent culinary marriage and if you had some on you do sprinkle it into the mix and voila, you’re done!

Easy, no? It cannot get any easier and if you have all the ingredients within arms reach and your quinoa ready you can prepare any salad combination in no time at all. The sweetness of the corn and grilled peppers, the crunch from the cucumbers, the kick you get from the herbs and smoked paprika, this is one good way to eat quinoa indeed.

What do you think? Would you try quinoa in this salad? How do you eat your quinoa?

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