Recipe - Roasted vegetable and red quinoa salad

I couldn't face another veggie pizza on Meatless Monday (not sure why, they're very tasty), so I improvised and made this quinoa salad instead.  Another bloody delicious quinoa meal, it comes up trumps again as my new favourite grain.

Ingredients

1.5 cups uncooked red quinoa (but you can substitute white or black quinoa)

4.5 cups chicken stock

1 onion, chopped

3 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon each ground cumin seeds, ground turmeric, ground coriander seeds

2 small kumera, cut into small pieces and roasted

1 small eggplant, cut in half lengthwise, roasted

3 zucchini, cut into thin slices, lengthways

1 red capsicum, roasted, skin on

Half a punnet cherry tomatoes, halved

1/2 bunch mint, chopped

1/2 bunch coriander, chopped

Method

Roast veggies and once done, put the red capsicum in a plastic bag and seal, to enable steam to help lift the skin off.  Once cooled peel off the skin.  Peel the skin off the eggplant and cut into 2cm cubes. Fry zucchini on a griddle fry pan or similar. A normal fry pan will do the trick, I just happen to like the charred stripes.

Add chicken stock to quinoa and cook quinoa according to directions.  My packet of red quinoa said to boil for 15 minutes but that wasn't nearly enough, I found I cooked it for over 20 minutes.  It shouldn't be too crunchy or gluggy, so keep testing it.  [Don't worry, it will taste better than it smells, which is a bit like yellow split peas]

While quinoa is cooking, fry onions for a couple of minutes in 1 tablespoon of oil, then add remaining oil and spices.  Cook for several minutes more until fragrant.

Once quinoa has cooked, allow to cool.  Place cooked quinoa into a salad bowl and add onion & spice mix, then roasted veggies, cherry tomatoes and finally, chopped herbs.

The only thing missing in this salad was a bit of crunch, so you could add chopped fennel, or just do what I did and serve with a crunchy side salad.

Serves 4-6 if serving as a side dish, serves 2 as a meal (and you'll still have some leftovers for lunch the next day).