About the Recipe
I love the colour of this salad. Cooking the quinoa in the beetroot juices turns it a vibrant red. Adding the blue cheese and toasted walnuts makes the pears taste incredible. It really is a taste sensation!
It’s the perfect lunchtime salad. You can enjoy it with warm beetroot quinoa. It’s just as tasty cold, but better at room temperature than straight out the fridge.
Ingredients
250g packet of pre-cooked quinoa (I use Merchant Gourmet)
250g cooked whole beetroot in natural juices (not pickled beetroot)
2 pears
100g Blue cheese (I use Honestly Tasty plant-based cheese)
Two handfuls baby spinach
Pinch of salt
Olive oil to serve
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FOR THE TOASTED WALNUTS
75G walnut halves
½ teaspoon dried rosemary
1 tablespoon agave syrup
Sea salt
Preparation
First toast your walnuts
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Add the walnut halves and rosemary to a small frying pan without any oil. Fry on a medium heat for a minute or two.
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Stir in the agave syrup and take off the heat.
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Place on a chopping board and grind sea salt on top. Leave to cool.
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Once cooled roughly chop.
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Now make your quinoa and beetroot
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Grate the beetroot and keep the water from the packet aside.
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Add the quinoa to a medium pan with a tablespoon of water. Stir gently for a minute.
-      Add the grated beetroot and beetroot water. Gently stir for another minute or so, add a little more water if needed so it doesn’t dry out.
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Once warm, take off the heat.
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Get your other ingredients ready
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Thinly slice the pears into bite-size pieces.
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Cut the Blue cheese into small cubes.
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Take any large stalks off your baby spinach leaves.
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Time to build your salad
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Place a handful of spinach in each bowl.
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Top with the warm beetroot red quinoa and place your pear and cheese on top.
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Sprinkle over your toasted walnuts and drizzle with olive oil.
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Your delicious salad is ready to eat!