Quinoa Salad with Oyster Mushrooms and Avocado

Right then, down to business. After some recent inspiration, it occurred to me that eating potato curry everyday is not as satisfying as it used to be! Its time to try something different. Something new. Something that is quite likely to go wrong!

So here it is, recipe adapted from Rose Elliot's Vegan Feast.



Gomasio is a Japanese seasoning that is quite nice as a healthy substitute for salt. Usually made by dry-roasting sesame seeds until golden, and then seasoning with a tiny bit of salt. For this dish, I'll try something a bit different!

2tsp sesame seeds
2tsp pumpkin seeds
2tsp sunflower seeds
A splash of dark soy sauce

Dry roast the sesame seeds in a hot pan for about 2 minutes, then add the pumpkin and sunflower seeds. Roast for a further minute or so, until the sesame start to turn brown (be quick to reduce heat - within seconds they go from a beautiful golden brown, to a somewhat unappetising black)
Add the splash of soy, and stir in. Remove from heat and let cool.

1/2 cup dry quinoa, washed
1 cup water
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cup oyster mushrooms
1/2 cup buttom mushrooms
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
Black pepper
1/2 cup broccoli florets
1 avocado, prepared and sliced
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
1/4 red pepper, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
Chopped parsley and chives

Cook quinoa with 1 cup of water in a small pot, bring to a boil then cover and simmer over low heat until soft, about 15 minutes. Meanwhile saute the mushrooms and garlic in olive oil for about 4 mins. Season with black pepper. Toss the avocado in the lemon juice (to stop it from turning a mangy brown colour and ruining the photo!). Finally, steam the broccoli for 6 minutes. Combine the cooked quinoa, the mushrooms, avocado, broccoli, red pepper and herbs together, and top with the roasted seeds.

Eat.

The good thing about this dish is you can make a cauldron full, and make it last a long time! Its good hot or cold, so if you feeling especially lazy one day, you wouldn't even need to reheat those left overs that are still in the saucepan. And unlike rice, I don't even need to worry about poisoning myself! Yey!

Of course I won't get to test that theory, as hopefully I'll be making something different and exciting, a lot more often! So I'll leave it upto one of the lucky readers to tell me how long a bowl of this stuff lasts, before sprouting legs and running away.