Beetroot, herb and nutty grain salad with feta dressing
Ready-cooked pouches of rice and grains make a great cheat’s base for salads – look for ones with a mixture of types for contrasting textures and flavours
Mediterranean-inspired herby grain salad
Serves 4
Easy
Prep:
Cook:
A vibrant, crunchy salad packed with protein-rich quinoa, roasted almonds, fresh herbs and a quick oregano and lemon dressing
Skip to ingredients
- 60g dried white, black and red quinoa
- 1 red pepper
- 150g baby cucumber
- 5 spring onions
- 300g mixed cherry tomatoes
- 100g roasted almonds
- 15g mint
- 15g parsley
- 400g tin of beluga lentilsdrained
- 75g kalamata olivespitted
- 100g feta
DRESSING
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 garlic clovegrated
- ½ lemonjuiced
- ½ tsp dried oregano
Nutrition: per serving
- kcal465
- fat33g
- saturates7g
- carbs19g
- sugars7g
- fibre11g
- protein18g
- salt1.4g
Method
step 1
Bring 300ml of water to the boil in a medium pan, then add the quinoa with a pinch of seasoning. Stir, then cover, reduce the heat and simmer for 10-12 mins until most of the water has been absorbed. Strain through a sieve then leave on top of the pan and cover with a tea towel to steam for a couple of minutes. Fluff with a fork and leave to cool.
step 2
Dice the pepper, slice the cucumber into ½cm coins, thinly slice the spring onions, halve the tomatoes and roughly chop the almonds, mint and parsley.
step 3
Put these in a large bowl, then stir in the lentils and olives. Crumble over the feta and stir in the quinoa.
step 4
In a small jar, combine the dressing ingredients with seasoning and shake to combine.
step 5
Divide the salad between four lunch boxes, keeping the dressing separate until ready to serve. Add 2 tsp of dressing per portion when ready to eat. The salad will keep in the fridge for up to four days.
