Another quinoa salad? Ummm, yes please!

I know there are endless quinoa salad recipes out there and for good reason. Quinoa is yum! If you cook it right and it doesn’t turn into a mushy mess, the crunchy grainy texture is a perfect way to take a salad to the next level. But perhaps the novelty has worn off and you are like no, not another quinoa salad, I can’t take it anymore! Well, I think this salad is deserving of some excitement!

I have been making different versions of quinoa salads since they first came into popular existence and we all had to learn how to pronounce it. This recipe is the result of many different trials I have made over the years. It is by far the best version I have made, to the point that I think I may officially give up on the search for my favourite quinoa salad, this is it!

It does contain a few of the usual suspects that seem to go so well with quinoa (pumpkin, goats cheese) but it is the addition of the smoky spiced pepitas that is the key to this salad. I used to use almonds in this recipe, but I was cooking dinner for friend who can’t eat nuts so I needed to get creative. I seriously struggle not to add nuts to everything I make. So I experimented with using pepitas instead and I loved the result! I have never been particularly blown away by pepitas, I find them a bit boring, like an inferior nut. So to make them a bit more special I coated them in spices, lime juice, sugar and oil and the result was yum!

They are now the star of this recipe. In fact, I have become quite addicted to these and just munch on them for a snack. I like to call them paprika pepitas as it fun to try and say. So it is the discovery of the wonders of pepitas that has lead me to my ultimate quinoa salad. They just go so perfectly with the sweet soft roast pumpkin and creamy goats cheese.

I use large half crescent shaped piece of roasted pumpkin for this recipe but sometimes I prefer to cut the pumpkin into dice sized pieces. I don’t think it looks as nice but it does make the salad a bit easier to eat! The choice is yours.

Quinoa, Pumpkin, Charred Onion and Smoked Pepita Salad

Prep time: 1 hour (plus an additional 1 hour cooking time)

Makes: 4 serves

Dietary guide: This recipe is gluten free. Vegan and FODMAP friendly alternative provided

Ingredients

¼ of a Japanese Pumpkin (about 800g)

1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil (approximately)

2 medium red onions peeled

½ cup of raw quinoa

1 Massel “chicken” stock cube

1 small-medium fennel

½ cup of flat leaf parsley

2 ½ well packed cups of washed and shredded curly kale – hard stems removed

3 tablespoons of garlic honey mustard dressing - see recipe below

120g of the best soft goats cheese you can find– I use Meredith’s

1 loose cups of baby spinach (optional)

For the Pepitas

100g of raw pepitas

2 teaspoons of sugar

½ teaspoon of salt

1-½ teaspoons of olive oil

1 teaspoon of lime juice

2 teaspoons of smoked paprika

1 teaspoon of ground cumin

1 teaspoon of curry powder

Method

For the pumpkin: Preheat the oven to 150 degrees and line 2 baking trays with baking paper. Wipe down the pumpkin skin with a damp cloth to remove any traces of dirt. Using a shape knife cut the pumpkin into thin (about 1 cm thick) long strips. Alternatively, you can remove the pumpkin skin and cut into dice sized pieces. I don’t think this way looks as nice but it does make the salad a bit easier to eat! Coat the pumpkin well in about 2 tablespoons of olive oil, season and lay out in a single layer on the trays. Roast for about 1 ¼ hours checking a few times and rotating the tray if the pumpkin is cooking unevenly. You want them to be starting to go nice and golden on the edges – it may take longer or shorter depending on your oven. Set aside to cool once cooked.

For the Smoked Pepitas: Line another tray with baking paper. Mix all the ingredients well in a bowl – I highly recommend doing this by hand. Spread out in a single layer on the tray and bake. After ten minutes, take them out of the oven and give them a little shake. Depending on the heat of your oven they may be ready now or need another 5-10 minutes. They are ready when they are all nice and golden but have not started to go dark brown. The pepitas may stick together; you can either keep them in chunks (like below) or break them up. Set aside to cool. Store in an airtight container if not using immediately.

For the quinoa: Place the quinoa, stock cube and 2 ½ cups of water in a saucepan. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 10 minutes. Take off the heat when the quinoa is nearly cooked but still retains a little crunch. It will continue cooking after being removed from the heat so you want it to be a little bit undercooked at this point. Drain the quinoa into a strainer and place this quinoa filled strainer on top of the saucepan you just used. Place a lid over the quinoa and let sit for about 20 minutes so the residual heat can dry out the quinoa. Take off the lid, fluff and place in a large bowl to finish cooling.

For the charred red onion: Cut the red onion long ways into 8 even wedges. Separate the layers into individual pieces. Pre-heat a fry pan on a high heat. Pour half the left over olive oil (from the pumpkin) into the pan and toss in half the red onion and season. Let it sit for a minute to darken, then toss the pan, and leave for another minute. Repeat this process again if you need to until the onion is going nice and charred in some spots. This should take about 3-4 minutes. Remove the onion, wipe down the pan and repeat the process with the remaining oil and onion. Set the onion aside to cool.

To assemble the salad: Remove the base of the fennel, cut in half and wipe off any dirt. Using a slicing blade on a food processor (or with a knife), slice very thinly. You need about 2 cups of sliced fennel for this recipe so if you end up with lots more, reserve some for another use. Place the fennel in the bowl with the quinoa – make sure the quinoa is cool first. Roughly chop the parsley and add to the bowl. Place the kale and dressing in a separate bowl and gently massage with your hands for a minute. This softens the kale and makes it easier to digest.

Add the kale to the rest of the salad and give it a good mix. Finally, add the roasted pumpkin, baby spinach if using and crumble over the goat’s cheese. Gently toss the salad with your hands. Sprinkle with the smoked pepitas and the salad is done! The pepitas will go soggy if left on the salad for too long, so make sure you only do this step just before serving.

Garlic and honey mustard salad dressing

Ingredients

50ml of lemon juice (pith and pips strained)

80ml of olive oil (I use the oil left over from the marinated goat’s cheese)

1 tablespoon of honey

1 tablespoon of mustard (I used a smokey mustard)

¼ teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of creamed garlic – see end of the recipe

Method

Make sure the honey is runny; warm a little if it’s too hard. Place all the ingredients in a jar and shake well. Taste and adjust to your liking.

How to make creamed garlic: The reason I use creamed garlic instead of chopped up or minced garlic, when a recipe calls for raw garlic is that this method reduces the heat and intensity of raw garlic. This means I can use more garlic and get more garlic flavor into it without it being quite as full on. To cream garlic place 2 cloves of nice and fresh peeled garlic in a mortar. Add 1 very generous teaspoon of nice quality salt and grind up with the pestle. It might sound like a lot of salt but the garlic helps to retard its saltiness. Once its pretty smooched up and like a rough paste, add two teaspoons of olive oil and continue grinding and mixing until you have a nice nearly smooth paste. It’s now ready to use. It’s best used in the first couple of hours but you can cover it with oil and keep it for a day if you need to. If you don’t have a mortar and pestle, you can do this on a chopping board using the back of a metal spoon. It will just test you patience a bit more.

Vegan dietary alternation: To make this vegan simply omit the goat’s cheese - you may like to add avocado instead.

FODMAP dietary alternations: Leave out the onion from the recipe and replace with freshly chopped green spring onion. Replace the creamed garlic in the salad dressing with 1 teaspoon of garlic oil. The amount of honey in the dressing should be fine, but you may want to replace it with rice malt syrup.