Quinoa, Sweet Potato and Goats Cheese Salad

Apologies, not the best photo of this salad but don’t let that put you off!

Quinoa makes such a nice change to rice in filling salads, combined with some baked sweet potatoes, chickpeas and fresh goats cheese this salad really doesn’t lack for anything!

I try to plan ahead and bake the sweet potato ahead of time if I have the oven on for something else.

To make this vegan just omit the cheese and and add an extra 50g of chickpeas and another handful of salad leaves.

Serves 8.

Ingredients

200g quinoa, rinsed

500mls water

260g sweet potato, wrapped in foil and baked at 200 degrees for 1hour until cooked through, allow to cool, peel and cut into bite sized pieces

50g mixed lettuce leaves or baby spinach leaves

200g cooked chickpeas

50g goats cheese

1 teaspoon white wine vinegar

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

3 teaspoons olive oil

salt and pepper

Method

Pour the rinsed quinoa into a pan with a tight fitting  lid and add the water, bring up to the boil and then turn the heat down to low and allow to simmer for 15 minutes.

Allow to sit for 10 minutes before removing the lid.

Tip the quinoa into a large bowl and leave to cool.

Once the quinoa is cool, add the cold sweet potato, salad leaves, chickpeas and goats cheese.

In a small bowl, combine the vinegar, mustard and oil to make a dressing.

Pour the dressing over the salad, season and mix gently.