Quinoa with Roasted Olives, Cashew Nuts and Oranges

Photo provided by Sadiq Food Photography (Click here)

Here's a incredibly healthy and hearty salad that'll keep you sustained throughout the day. Very tasty and fully satisfying which is quite tricky to achieve when it comes to a vegan lunch.

250g quinoa
150g black pitted olives
1 long red chilli
2 cloves garlic
2 bay leaves
100ml extra virgin olive oil
100g cashew nuts
1/2 teaspoon tumeric
Sea salt
2 oranges
1 small bunch basil
70g rocket

Method:
Place a large pot of salted water on to the boil. Thinly slice the red chilli and garlic and lay out on oven tray with olives, bay leaves and half the olive oil, place in oven set at 180ºC for 20 minutes. In a separate oven tray lay out cashew nuts, drizzle over remaining olive oil and season with tumric and salt, place in oven with olives and cook until golden in colour.
Once the water is boiling add quinoa and cook for about 7-10 minutes until tripled in size, drain and cool under cold running water.
Slice the top and bottom off the orange and using a small paring knife run the blade round the orange removing the skin and pith, then slice the segment out of the oranges. Pick the leaves off basil and roughly chop, and in a large bowl add the quinoa and mix in the basil, oranges, olives and cashews until evenly combined. Serve with washed rocket leaves. 

Red Quinoa Salad

Quinoa's protein is of an unusually high quality. It is a complete protein, with an essential amino acid balance close to the ideal ... similar to milk!
This is the perfect all year round salad, nutty, juicy sweet, bitter, and that dreaded word 'healthy'.

250g Red quinoa

3 oranges

200g black olives
200g cashew nuts
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
8 large basil leaves
100g rocket
3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
Extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt
Cracked Pepper

Method:

First cook the Quinoa as instructed on the packet once cooked run the quinoa under clod water to cool down.
On grilling tray evenly spread out the olives and drizzles with just enough olive oil to coat the olives then crack in pepper and place under grill on high heat to roast, when the olives start to sizzle move the olives round the tray so that all sides of olives are evenly roasted, this will take around 15 minutes.
Once olives are roasted spoon out of tray leaving the olive juice in the tray, add the cashew nuts to the tray and sprinkle with turmeric drizzle over the honey and liberally sprinkle with salt and pepper and mix together with your hands. Roast the cashew nuts under a hot grill turning every 2 minutes so all sides are evenly roasted, this should take 6 minutes.
Place the cooked quinoa, olives and cashew nuts in a large mixing bowl. Peel the oranges and cut in half and then cut in half again and slice the oranges in to small chunks and add to the salad, roughly tear basil into salad, add the balsamic and mix together. Taste salad and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper and serve.