This superfood salad recipe from Avoca Belfast is the perfect way to pack nutrients into your lunch in the most delicious way possible.
Ingredients:
– 40g pumpkin seeds, smoked almonds and hazelnuts
– Handful baby spinach leaves
– 3 tbsp Avoca Kilmac French dressing
– Small head frisèe lettuce, torn
– 100g broccoli florets, purple sprouting if you can get it
– 100g asparagus tips
– 50g sugar snap peas
– 80g frozen edamame beans, defrosted
– 100g cooked quinoa
– 80g feta cheese, cut into cubes
– 100g blueberries or pomegranate seeds
Method:
1. Blanch and refresh all the broccoli, asparagus, peas and beans. Cook the quinoa (approximately 8-10 minutes) or lentils (approximately 15-20 minutes) until al dente, drain and allow to cool.
2. Cut the feta cheese into cubes.
3. Toast the seeds or nuts in a pre-heated oven until golden. This will take between 8-10 minutes for the seeds, a little longer for the nuts: keep a close eye on them. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
4. In a bowl, mix together the frisèe lettuce, spinach leaves, quinoa or lentil, seeds and nuts and dress lightly with a little of the French dressing.
5. Next, gently warm the cooked green vegetables with a tablespoon of French dressing in a frying pan for 2-3 minutes.
6. To assemble place some lettuce, grains and seed mixture on a plate, then some of the greens, add some feta and repeat this layering until you have used up all the ingredients.
7. If you can get them, pomegranate seeds add a nice touch of colour and contrast in texture, otherwise use blueberries.
8. Put a little jug of extra dressing on each plate and serve.
Avoca is an Irish family-run business that spans one of the world’s oldest surviving manufacturing companies and Ireland’s most exciting stores. .
From a small tea and coffee station selling home baking in the corner of one of the shops, the Avoca food experience has taken on a life of its own.
Avoca Cafés have been a fixture in the Bridgestone 100 Best Restaurants each year since 1997 and they feature in good eating guides everywhere. Many dishes have earned important awards such as Great Taste stars over the years. Avoca employs over 700 great people at 11 locations across Ireland and wholesale retails to dozens of countries worldwide. All from a modest handweaving mill that was established in a rural Irish village in 1723.