Super summer salad
- Prepare
- less than 30 mins
- Cook
- 10 to 30 mins
- Serve
- Serves 2–4
Perfect for a quick midweek tea, but also as a showstopper on a sunny afternoon in the garden. Serve alongside summer tarts, quiches, baked fish or roast lamb.
Ingredients
For the salad
- 50g/1¾oz quinoa
- 1 tbsp sunflower seeds
- 1 tbsp linseeds
- 100g/3½oz cooked peas, frozen or fresh
- 100g/3½oz cooked broad beans, frozen or fresh
- 100g/3½oz cucumber, diced
- 2–3 Little Gem lettuces, washed and roughly chopped
- handful fresh flatleaf parsley, leaves only
- 2–3 fresh mint sprigs, leaves only
- good handful fresh oregano, leaves only
- few basil leaves or soft herbs from your veg patch or herb garden
- 200g/7oz feta, crumbled
For the dressing
- 2 tbsp Dijon or English mustard
- 4 tbsp Norfolk rapeseed oil
- 2 tbsp cider vinegar or vinegar of choice
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Put the quinoa into a saucepan and cover with 150ml/5fl oz cold water. Slowly bring to a simmer over a medium heat. Cook for 15–20 minutes or until tender. Drain, set aside and allow to cool.
Place a small frying pan over a medium heat, add the sunflower seeds and linseeds and lightly toss for 1 minute until golden. Set aside.
For the dressing, put all the ingredients into a clean jam jar and shake vigorously until you’ve got a well-incorporated dressing.
Put the quinoa, toasted seeds and the remaining salad ingredients into a large bowl and mix well. Season with a little salt and pepper and add the desired amount of dressing to serve – I like mine to be quite heavily dressed.
