Hermione's Pantry

I love big bowls of salad. This recipe had been planned to have included barbecued vegetables however our barbecue was a failure as the barbecue wasn’t started early enough (not wanting to blame the men of the household *cough cough*) and it was incredibly windy. Instead we oven roasted the vegetables which still worked brilliantly but it was missing the smokey barbecue flavour. I also really enjoy drizzling tahini over the top of this salad too but didn’t this time as my sister was also having it too.

I am really enjoying quinoa at the moment, it is a great alternative to rice or cous cous and is far better for you due to the high protein content it has. Living with my parents it is tricky to balance my diet as I normally would as I understand that sometimes some of my vegetarian meals can be “too vegetarian” for them. This week while my parents were away on holiday I was really looking forward to a week of food to reboot my body. However our water pump broke so we have had no water which has meant that my morning smoothie bowls have had to stop as I can not wash my juicer. Hopefully it will be getting fixed this week! My knowledge of plumbing and water pumps however has increased dramatically however so there are always positives to be found from these situations.

My sister very kindly took me in while the water has been broken so I have still been able to enjoy great vegetarian meals as we cook largely the same meals. It has been great being able to spend so much time with her and her family this week, we celebrated my niece’s first birthday which we made a pear, blueberry and polenta cake for which was delicious.

Roasted Vegetable and Quinoa Salad

Ingredients (serves 4-6 people) 

• 250ml Quinoa (place the quinoa in a jug until it reaches 250ml)
• 500ml Stock
• 2 Courgettes
• 1 Yellow pepper
• 2 Red pepper
• 1 Aubergine
• 1 Onion
• Extra virgin olive oil, to coat the vegetables
• Lemon, zest and juice
• 1 tbsp sundried tomato paste
• Handful fresh oregano, finely chopped
• 1 sprig fresh rosemary, finely chopped
• Handful mint, finely chopped
• 4 garlic cloves

Method

1. Place the water and quinoa into a pan and gently simmer until all of the water is absorbed.
2. Cut the courgettes, peppers, aubergine and onion roughly into inch sized pieces, place on a baking tray with the garlic cloves and drizzle with olive oil, then season with salt and pepper. Place in the oven at 200C for 30-45 minutes.
3. Once the vegetables are cooked mix the quinoa with the vegetables, oregano, Rosemary and mint, Sundried tomato paste, lemon zest and juice, then season with salt and pepper.

Enjoy! H x Edit