It was time. Rumours had been flying, and I had to see for myself.
Off I wandered to the renown Sydney Flemington markets last Saturday. The atmosphere was a lot different to the markets that I was used to for sure, was I in Sydney? Lots of hustle and bustle with sellers shouting loudly over a jungle of people and rainbow coloured fruit boxes. I had to carefully watch my step not to get bowled over. I was a little frightened at first: So many options of what to choose and so many people were shouting at me! I then progressed on to buy my first item – some radishes. It was a bit of an impulse buy, but they just looked so fresh. “One dollar fifty” said the lady. I was so surprised… so cheap? That’s when this became fun, almost a game! How much fruit and vegetables could I get? Time to be adventurous 😉 A whole cucumber, pack of oranges, parsley, lemon and bags of delicious produce later, I was bright eyed and bushy tailed hot footing it out of there with a big grin on my face.
When I got home I decided to be creative with what I had bought and came up with a phenomenal quinoa salad recipe. I thought it wouldn’t hurt to share:
Ingredients (~6 serves)
1 cup tricoloured quinoa (raw)
1/2 large bunch of kale, de-stemmed and finely sliced
1 carrot grated
4 chopped spring onions
2/3 cup chopped parsley
1 tomato diced
100g mung beans (you could also use regular sprouts)
1/2 cup roughly chopped roasted almonds
Juice from two freshly squeezed oranges
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tbsp olive oil
Pepper
Method
1) Wash quinoa. Add 2 cups water and bring to boil. Immediately reduce to a simmer. When all water has almost gone, take quinoa off the heat and let it steam in saucepan with lid on (3mins). Then let quinoa cool
2) Add oil to wok and lightly fry/toss kale until wilted. Add soy sauce and toss for 1 more min, remove from heat (can do at same time as cooking quinoa)
3) Add all ingredients together in a big bowl and mix. Add a bit of pepper if you like for some extra taste.
Ways to use this healthy salad:
–> Add a side dish with some grilled salmon/fish and lemon
–> In a wrap with falafel and hommous
–> By itself with an added 95g tin of tuna, grilled chicken or lamb
–> For vegetarians add some tofu, chick peas or lentils to bulk up for a main meal
–> Add a generous handful of salad to make chicken, kangaroo, lean mince or veggie burgers. Why not add some avocado and beetroot too?!