Summer Lovin'

Hooray for the warm weather! I can finally turn my electric blanket down to its lowest setting and my bed has been relieved of its winter covers!
In other news the sun actually warrants eating salads and not pining for a warm stew while the British weather pelts rain against the window in mid-June.
So while the sun has got his hat on I thought it would be a good time to post my recipe for Quinoa salad. For anyone unfamiliar with Quinoa, it is a naturally gluten-free grain (yay!) almost like cous cous. It's super good for you and has lots of magnesium,fibre,essential amino acids and best of all iron for those Coeliacs who suffer from anaemia, its an all round good egg!
I know when people praise superfoods or health foods people rush out to try them they usually end up tasting rather vile, but this isn't really the case with quinoa, if I could liken it to anything it would be lentils, only in so much as they taste like the flavours you put with them.
Most supermarkets sell quinoa now and health food shops like Holland and Barrett also sell fair trade quinoa, healthy and good for your conscience!
This recipe is good for lunches, if like me you've done jacket potatoes to death at lunch times. it lasts in the fridge for a good 2-3 days.

Minty Quinoa Salad with Feta and Pomegranate.

Ingredients

• 100g Quinoa (cooked and cooled to the packets specifications)
• 100g Feta cheese cubed
  
• A few mint leaves finely chopped (mint is in season now)
• Seeds of a small pomegranate
  
• 1 Small red pepper diced or 2 medium tomatoes diced (whichever you prefer)
• 6 Spring onions roughly chopped
• A good glug of olive oil
• A decent squirt of lemon juice

Method

• Cook your quinoa as stated on the packets instructions. While its cooling down get to work chopping all your veg,feta and mint. Pop it all in a bowl.
• Slice the pomegranate in half. Theres no lady like way to get pomegranate seeds out unless you have the patience of a saint, a pin and an hour to spare, so I prefer the 'Nigella' method, which involves a wooden spoon and a good right hook, hold the pomegranate over a bowl and whack it with a wooden spoon until all the seeds are in the bowl. Easy peasy, and good for those with anger issues!
• Throw the cooled quinoa into the bowl with the pomegranate seeds and the chopped veg etc and toss together with salad scoops or your own fair hands. Slosh on your olive oil (i use around a tablespoon) and a squeeze of lemon juice,season but go easy on the salt-the feta should make the salad salty enough, mix through. Your done! Savour your handy work in the garden with a big glass of Rose!

NOTE
My cousin and I have recently discovered that while pomegranate fruits are gluten-free many pomegranate juices are NOT so remember the gluten-free mantra 'Always check the label'.