This hearty salad will be a crowd pleaser and is healthy, easy to make, with quinoa, raw fennel, avocado and cashew nuts mixed together.
Hearty and Easy Quinoa Salad
When Spring announces itself, we all want to move away from stews and soups for a while and eat lighter dishes. This salad is really quick to make and can easily become a favourite, among children too !
I will be honest, I am not a big fan of cooked fennel so I tend to avoid it. Raw fennel on the contrary is quite tasty and crunchy, and gets my vote. It has a hearty flavour that complements quinoa really well. To know why quinoa is a great addition to your diet, check out my blog post on the topic here.
When making a salad, the risk is always to drench it in ready-made dressing that’s full of sugars and conservatives, which is the opposite of a healthy salad.
Unfortunately that’s how a lot of people or restaurants serve salads and risk ruining all the benefits you expect from having a salad: fresh vegetables, high in protein and low in sugar, good fats.
That’s why with all the flavours from the fennel, avocado and quinoa, only a tiny bit of avocado oil is necessary to round up this salad.
Step by Step
I love a dinner that is ready in 20 minutes or less, and this one is even quicker than that !
There are three steps to make this salad in less than 15 minutes:
- Cook the quinoa, roughly 12 minutes until al dente;
- Slice the raw fennel and cube the avocado;
- Assemble together with the cashew nuts and drizzle the avocado oil and lemon juice on it.
Onc you have completed all steps, serve with a fresh bunch of basil and your salad looks beautiful, tastes fabulous, and you will get requests for seconds.
If you are looking for other easy recipes to make, check out:
Let me know in the comments if you make this quinoa & fennel salad, or bookmark it for later 🙂
Easy Quinoa & Fennel Salad
Ingredients
- 1 cup dry quinoa
- 1 bulb of raw fennel
- 1 large ripe avocado
- 10 g fresh basil
- Juice of 1/2 lemon
- 40 g cashew nuts
- 2 tbsp avocado oil
- Salt & pepper
Instructions
- Cook the quinoa in boiling water for about 12 minutes.
- In a small frying pan, toast the cashew nuts for a few minutes until golden.
- Slice the fennel bulb in thin slices, then set aside. Cover with the lemon juice.
- Scoop the flesh out of the avocado and cut into cubes. Shred the basil leaves.
- Once the quinoa is cooked, drain and divide into two bowls. Top with the sliced fennel, cubed avocado, the toasted cashews and the basil leaves.
- Season well and drizzle the avocado oil on each plate. Mix it all together and enjoy 🙂
