Quinoa roasted beetroot walnut mint salad

Main Dishes

Another recipe from Maria-Carin Gala’s Organic Kitchen: “This recipe does not contain hundreds of exotic ingredients, but a few healthy and delicious ones…”

Quinoa roasted beetroot salad

One of my earliest recipes that became one of my favourites for various reasons. One being that this recipe does not contain hundreds of exotic ingredients, but a few healthy and delicious ones and, secondly, I love that fresh taste of the combinations of its ingredients.

Imagine nutty protein-rich quinoa combined with perfectly roasted earthy juicy beetroots, avocado for that smooth I-want-more-of-that-good-fat-effect and crunchy omega-6 rich walnuts gently, soothed by fresh mint, all topped up with a whole lot of olive oil, lemon and salt!

This is a great accompaniment to all sorts of mains, or just by itself it won’t let you down.

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 cup quinoa
2-3 small beetroots, cut into wedges
1 ripe avocado, in chunks
1/2 cup walnuts, dry roasted and chopped roughly
1 bunch roughly chopped fresh mint
Salt
Coconut oil or olive oil

Dressing

2 tbsp or more extra virgin olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon and rind (organic)
Optional: 1 tsp wholegrain mustard
Sea salt and pepper

Action

Soak the quinoa overnight for better digestion. You don’t have to soak it, you can also cook it straight out of the packet, but it helps to give it a good wash under a sieve so it’s bitter coating is taken off.

Preheat your oven to 180 C.

Make sure your lemon is organic, otherwise they are sprayed with nasty chemicals, or grab one off your lemon tree. Put on some music, pour yourself a glass of wine and focus.

Wash and chop beetroots into small wedges, coat in a bit of oil, massage with salt and bake until tender, approximately 30 minutes. Strain the quinoa, add fresh water only about 5mm to cover the quinoa, bring to the boil with a pinch of salt and cook 15- 20 minutes. If you’ve added too much water finish cooking the quinoa without the lid so the water can evaporate. If you’ve added way too much, just strain it.

Leave the lid on for a few minutes for extra fluffiness, then fluff with a fork and allow to cool somewhat.

Mix the dressing ingredients together and combine with the quinoa, roasted beetroot, chopped mint and walnuts. Make sure there is enough oomph in it, so adjust the intensity of the flavours with more oil, salt and lemon, but be careful and don’t go overboard too quickly. Take your time – you want it just right.

Tips

You can of course go wild and roast sweet potato instead of beetroot, add coriander instead of mint, add some toasted chopped almonds instead of walnuts, add pomegranate seeds or goji berries, the world is your oyster.

In case you’re on a strict health diet I would suggest steaming or boiling the beetroot instead. Heating any form of oil is not recommend if your body needs healing and cleansing. Cut them into wedges and mix through salad. Delish.

Carin GalaRecipe by Maria-Carin Gala – galasorganickitchen.com – feedback on your cooking and baking experiences are welcome at: galasorganickitchen@gmail.com – more recipes by Carin on Osho News

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