Quinoa Tasty Salad

When the nice weather finally arrives, all I can think about is a fresh, healthy salad. In the Netherlands, the spring warmth arrives quite late but this won’t shorten my well deserved salad season. I alway take advantage of this time of the year to experiment with new mixes, ingredients and take them to work with me the day after.

Here the veggies don’t really have much taste. I admit that being Italian, sets unachievable standards when it comes to fresh produce taste. It actually reminds me when I was living in the US and I was quite disappointed when I had my first local carrot. I ate it raw and it gave me the same satisfaction of eating a piece of cardboard.

I then understood why in some countries outside of Italy, you need to use extra sauces to add some flavors. Honestly, I’m not a big fan of ready to go sauces. They are over-processed products, most of the times unhealthy, fatty, and with IBS, it is even harder to be sure that they are low-FODMAP.

Therefore, I found my own way to add some flavor, and my main ingredients are sun-dried tomatoes, olives and capers, that I mix with other ingredients.

It’s just pure addiction! Taste, health, juiciness, no IBS issues. Heaven for my tastebuds!

Of course sun-dried tomatoes cannot be used in a big amount, but a "little goes a long taste." When added to any plate, even as a paste, they add an interesting flavor, without compromising it with unhealthy chemicals.

In this case I decided to use quinoa as a base. It has a lot of nutritional properties, such as more protein and fiber than rice. It is very important to remember to wash it under running cold water before cooking it, you don’t really want to taste what I tasted the day I forgot to rinse them!

It’s a perfect dish even for you lunch box.

Buon appetito!

Makes: 2 servings
Serving Size: half each
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: as written on the quinoa packaging

Ingredients for quinoa tasty salad

• 7 oz quinoa
• 5 sun-dried tomatoes
• 15 big olives without seed (I like the big Bella di Cerignola type)
• 2 handful of rucola
• 1 medium carrot
• 2 boiled eggs
• salt and pepper
• 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
• a handful of walnuts
• juice of a fresh lemon

Directions for quinoa tasty salad

1. Rinse the quinoa with cold water with a strainer and cook it as indicated on the packaging.
2. Boil the eggs
3. While the quinoa cooks, cut the sun-dried tomatoes, olives and walnuts
4. Shred the carrot
5. Peel and cut the eggs when cool down
6. When the quinoa is cooked, drained and cold, add all the ingredients together
7. Add salt and pepper to taste, and the olive oil and some lemon juice