Last Updated on March 12, 2024
I was in Paris recently and had a wonderful salad as an entrée in one of my favourite little restaurants. Since Covid put a stop to my regular visits to this wonderful city I was very excited to be back. So excited that I forgot to note down the name of the salad. I cannot even Google the menu as it was a special of the day. Nevertheless, from my memory of such salad, I have come up with my own version.
As luck would have it I had a new knife from Nakano to review and decided to give it a try as I had a pile of courgettes and spring onions to chop. I can vouch for the fact that this is a seriously sharp knife as I managed to cut myself. So a warning if you are accident-prone in the kitchen. Take extra care when working with top quality knives. This chef’s knife is lighter than my usual chef’s knife from a famous French brand. Nakano is a Japanese style knife and I can imagine cutting beautifully thin slices of fish for sashimi with it. The ultra-sharp, high carbon steel blade is particularly attractive as is the handle. It comes with a knife sheath which is a great safety precaution.
As for the recipe for crispy quinoa salad, it has a few stages but is worth the bit of effort. It combines crispy quinoa which I think is having a moment these days – at least I keep coming across it in restaurants – which is very easy to make at home. Simply cook your quinoa in boiling water – I like mine with a bite – and then spread it out on an oven tray and bake it for half an hour. You can make a large tray full if you like and store the leftovers in the fridge to drizzle on other dishes. You could pep it up by adding salt, smoked salt, smoked paprika or whatever other spices you fancy. So versatile. I used mixed quinoa so that I had extra colour but you can use regular quinoa.
The rest of the ingredients are all green vegetables – aside from the prawns – and gives the salad a lovely healthy look. It goes some way towards your 5 a day. The prawns are pan-fried briefly until just pink and cooked through. The crispy quinoa salad is dressed with a toasted sesame dressing with a pinch of cumin.
Crispy Quinoa Salad
Ingredients
- 100 grams quinoa cooked
- 8 prawns (raw) shelled
- olive oil
- 100 grams frozen petit pois
- 2-3 handfuls soft salad leaves a mixed bag of leaves looks attractive
- 3 spring onions sliced
- 1 large courgette halved and then sliced into batons
salad dressing
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
- splash soy sauce
- splash maple syrup
- pinch ground cumin
Instructions
- Begin by toasting the cooked quinoa. Simply spread out on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Place in oven heated to 180 C for about half an hour until the quinoa crisps.
- Now slice the courgette into batons and spread out in a single layer on a second oven tray lined with baking paper. Sprinkle with olive oil (and a bit of salt to taste) and place in the oven. They should be cooked through within 15 - 20 minutes. You want them to retain a bit of bite.
- In the meantime whisk together the ingredients for the dressing and set aside.
- Slice the spring onions. Blanch the petit pois in boiling water. Drain and set aside.
- When the courgette and quinoa are ready, lay out the salad leaves in a bowl or on two plates. Add the courgette, peas and spring onions. Add the dressing.
- Heat a couple of teaspoons of olive oil in a small pan and briefly cook the prawns until they are pink and just cooked through. Add to the salad.
- Top with the crispy quinoa.
Nutrition
This recipe for crispy quinoa salad makes a healthy, light lunch with under 350 calories per serving Do try it and let me know how you get on. If you are looking for something a little more substantial, do try one of our other fish recipes – how about haddock with fennel, olives and lemon?
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