I am a massive salad fan. In fact, I'm generally a fan of any dish that involves mixing together lots of different flavours and ingredients. This particular salad does just that and makes for the perfect summery salad. It's so delicious. It's also packed to the brim full of superfoods, making it a gold-star healthy dish on top of all of its tasty accolades. Winning all around.
Full credit for this wonderful concoction goes to Allegra McEvedy, who is the foodie mastermind behind the Leon restaurant's cookbook.
Here's what you'll need (serves two):
- 2 tablespoons quinoa
- 1/2 head of broccoli
- 2 salmon fillets (or chicken, or anything else you fancy)
- 2 handfuls of rocket
- 2 handfuls of baby spinach
- tomatoes
- 120g frozen peas
- lemon
- 2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
- a sprinkling of alfalfa sprouts
- a drizzle of aioli (recipe at end of blog post)
- 2 tbs of toasted seeds (I used sesame)
- a sprinkling of parsley and/or mint
- I also added some feta and would highly recommend
Method
1. To begin: marinate your meat
If you are prepared enough in advance, I'd recommend marinating your salmon or chicken. Place the meat into a mix of olive oil, lemon juice and garlic cloves, and sit it into the fridge for a few hours.
2. Cook the quinoa
Put 80ml of water into a pan and bring to boil. Cook the quinoa for approx 10 mins. Turn off heat and fluff with a fork. Then leave to cool.
3. Cook the broccoli
Cut the broccoli into small florets (a.k.a. little mini trees) and drop them into a pan of boiling water to cook for 3 minutes. Drain and run under a tap of cold water to cool.
3. Cook the salmon
Now it's time to cook the meat - be it salmon, chicken or whatever other protein you decided to add to the mix. I BBQ'd my salmon. The Leon recipe suggests grilling it.
4. Build your salad
If you're good at multi-tasking you can be doing this while everything else is cooking.
It's time to build your salad: toss the leaves, tomatoes, feta, broccoli and peas in the juice of half a lemon and the olive oil.
Lift the mix onto whatever dish you're going to serve it all on - be it one big bowl or individual plates.
Next, add the quinoa and alfalfa.
Finally, add the salmon, and top it off with a drizzle of your homemade aioli (recipe below) and a sprinkling of the toasted seeds and herbs.
.......Bon appétit!
To make the aioli
What you'll need:
- 1 egg + 1 egg white
- 4-5 cloves of garlic (minced)
- 120ml sunflower oil
- 200ml thick Greek yoghurt
- Juice of 1/4 - 1/2 lemon
- dash of salt to taste
1. Using an electric mixer, whizz up the eggs and garlic for a few minutes until pale and fluffy.
2. With the machine still going, slowly drizzle in the oil.
3. Turn off the machine.
4. Gently stir in the yoghurt and finish with lemon and salt.
(FYI - this should last in the fridge for up to a week and is great with lots of other dishes - think as a side to roast potatoes hot out of the oven)
Photos all my own.
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