Last night I had one of those 'bottom of the fridge' experiences where I only had a couple of ingredients left in the fridge and was trying to work out how they would fit together. I had carrots, butternut pumpkin, cherry tomatoes and English spinach at my disposal. Often when I have random ingredients that don't naturally fit together I try to do a rice or cous cous based salad but I had recently bought some quinoa and thought I might give that a try. Pulling a chicken breast out of the freezer (as my husband grumbles when I cook vegetarian) and a can of chick peas out of the cupboard and I was set. I dry roasted the chickpeas in some spices and then baked the carrots and pumpkin in the oven in honey and spice. I also added some mint from the garden at the end. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of the final result but it turned into a delicious salad that even my husband appreciated! See my recipe below.
If you are unfamiliar with quinoa it is really easy to cook with and high in fibre, iron, magnesium and also suitable for people with gluten intolerance.
1 chicken breast cut into strips
1 can chick peas (drained and rinsed)
2 tsps cumin
2 tsps smokey paprika
1 butternut pumpkin cut into finger size pieces
2 carrots cut into finger size pieces
1 tb honey
2 tb oil
handful of cherry tomatoes (halved)
1/2 cup natural yogurt or handful of goats cheese
handful of mint
bunch of English spinach
If you are unfamiliar with quinoa it is really easy to cook with and high in fibre, iron, magnesium and also suitable for people with gluten intolerance.
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| Quinoa |
Quinoa salad
with honey roasted spiced carrots, spiced chickpeas, wilted spinach and pan fried chicken
2 cups of quinoa (cooked to packet instructions)1 chicken breast cut into strips
1 can chick peas (drained and rinsed)
2 tsps cumin
2 tsps smokey paprika
1 butternut pumpkin cut into finger size pieces
2 carrots cut into finger size pieces
1 tb honey
2 tb oil
handful of cherry tomatoes (halved)
1/2 cup natural yogurt or handful of goats cheese
handful of mint
bunch of English spinach
- Mix the honey and half of the oil and spices together and coat the pumpkin and carrot in the spice mixture and then bake in the oven until cooked (about 20 mins).
- Mix the chickpeas and remaining spices and oil together and then pan fry for 5 mins and set aside and then pan fry the chicken in the same pan.
- Place the English spinach in a colander and pour boiling water over until wilted and set aside.
- Toss the quinoa, chicken, carrot, pumpkin, tomatoes, English spinach, mint and chick peas together and top with several dollops of yogurt or cheese.
