Vegan Lunch Recipe: Quinoa Salad with Chickpeas and Cauliflower

This is a great salad. It's great with other salads, it's great with gluten shnitzels (which I'll be serving them with), and it's great on its own for lunch. AND it's protein packed because of the quinoa/chickpea combo. Boom.



Ingredients:

Two cups of cauliflower florets, chopped small
One garlic clove, finely chopped
Two lemons, juiced, with the rind chopped off in big chunks
Half a cup of olive oil
A can of chickpeas, drained
Salt and pepper to taste
A cup of quinoa
A cup and a half of water
A teaspoon of salt
A loose-packed cup of parsley
A loose-packed cup of mint
Two spring onions, chopped
A tablespoon of red-wine vinegar
A quarter cup of raisins

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius

Mix the cauliflower, half the rind, the clove of garlic, and a tablespoon of the olive oil in a bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Pour the mixture out onto a lined baking tray and spread it evenly.

Pat the drained chickpeas dry on a paper towel, then put them in the bowl with the rest of the rind and another tablespoon of olive oil, and add salt and pepper to taste.

Pour the mixture out onto another lined baking tray and spread evenly also.

Now bake both of these trays for twenty minutes. They should brown a little.

While doing this, place the quinoa and water and a teaspoon of salt in a small saucepan. Bring it to the boil, turn the heat right down, put a lid on tightly and cook for fifteen minutes (just like cooking rice, basically). Turn the heat off and leave to sit for five minutes (sorry I forgot to photograph this step!). You may need to drain off any excess water.

Now combine the remaining ingredients: the parsley, mint, spring onions, vinegar, lemon juice, the rest of the olive oil, and raisins, in a bowl.

When they're ready, pick the lemon rind chunks out of the chickpeas and cauliflower. Mix the chickpeas, cauliflower, and quinoa into the greenery. Give it a good stir. This salad tastes good warm or cold.