MONDAY MOTIVATION: Can you win friends with salad?

I hope you enjoyed the fabulous sunshine we had over the weekend! The glorious weather is to continue into mid-week and as the weather heats up, we naturally think about salads and lighter fresher foods. I have a couple of salad recipes that I would eat all year round and fish makes the perfect accompaniment for salads in this hot weather.

In Ireland, we tend to use iceberg lettuce as our base. While this is fine, it’s a little bit tasteless and can make salads boring. I really like using baby spinach; it is nutritionally dense but can taste a little bitter. You can also use rocket, butterhead, cos or little gem.

By changing up the base, salad recipes are given a much needed revamp! My favourite salad is a mixed bean and quinoa salad. I get all the ingredients from Lidl or Aldi and make enough for a few days. I freeze some portions for later and keep enough for two or three days.

All I have to do then is add the chopped leaves and dressing and my lunch is good to go!

Mixed Bean and Quinoa Salad Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup of cooked quinoa

1 tin of mixed beans

2 chopped scallions

1 red pepper

2-3 tbs olive oil

1 tbsp balsamic or apple cider vinegar

1 tsp wholegrain mustard

Salt and pepper

Method

To cook the quinoa, first wash it under a running tap.

Put 1 part quinoa to 2 parts water in a pot.

Bring this to the boil, cover and simmer 15-20 mins (The quinoa is cooked when it unfurls from the grain)

Take the pot off the heat but leave it covered.

While that is cooling, rinse the can of mixed beans and the spinach leaves.

Chop all the veggies and the leaves.

In a large bowl, combine the cooled quinoa, beans, veggies and leaves.

In a separate bowl, mix our dressing of olive oil, vinegar, wholegrain mustard and salt and pepper.

Before serving, drizzle the dressing over the salad and lightly toss.