Bejewelled Quinoa Salad

Well it's the start of a new week and I have some exciting new recipes in mind! Starting off with a delicious quinoa salad using dried fruits and nuts and lots of fresh herbs to add heaps of flavour. The little pieces of fruit and nut looked so pretty in the quinoa that I decided to call it "bejewelled quinoa salad" - sounded a little more exotic than fruit and nut salad which sounds like some sort of chocolate confection! The cumin in the dressing and heaps of fresh mint and parsley add an arabian flavour to this tasty little lunchbox meal - fitting for where I'm living now.

Bejewelled Quinoa Salad

quinoa

dried cherries or raisins

dried apricots (chopped)

pistachios (chopped)

cherry tomatoes

fresh mint

fresh parsley

cumin

olive oil

lemon juice

This is so easy to make - simply cook the quinoa (in the same way as you would cook rice) then mix all the ingredients together.  Voila!  Snacks for today were a kiwi fruit sliced up to look pretty and a pear quartered and then doused in lemon juice to prevent it from going brown.