This salad is ‘flexible’ in that you can change the contents around a little. The quantities I have given will give you a big bowl that will serve at least four as a side – with some leftovers for lunch the next day. When I say you can change the contents – so long as you keep the quinoa and pomegranate you can pretty much change the other vegetables as the contrast between the savoury and sweet is what is important. This is a great salad for a pre-Christmas barbecue as the red and green vegetables will echo the colours of the season.
Salad:
2 cups of quinoa – cooked according to packet directions
One pomegranate
1 tin of chickpeas – drained
1 bunch of asparagus, lightly steamed until just soft, and cut into bite sized pieces
1 cup corn – lightly steamed until just soft (or use a tin of drained corn)
1/4 cup of chopped pistachios
4 spring onions, thinly sliced
Handful of chopped coriander leaves
Handful of chopped mint leaves
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
Dressing:
1 tbs vinegar
1 tbs olive oil
2 tsp sumac
Juice of one small lemon
Salt and pepper to taste
Put all salad ingredients in a bowl (to get the pomegrante seeds out, I cut the fruit in half, and upturn the half over the bowl, give it a quick squeeze to get some juice, then bang it with a heavy spoon to get the loose ones out, then unfortunately you have to dig for the others – just don’t let the pith fall into the bowl as it is not nice to eat.
Combine the dressing ingredients, then stir through the bowl.