Happy New Year! Wow I can’t believe how quickly time is going by! This comforting warm vegan quinoa and roasted vegetable salad is awesome. The veggies give you lots of essential vitamins and minerals as well as fibre, while the quinoa ensures you stay full for longer. Plus it works really well in a Pixie Plate alongside other salads, and you all know Pixie Plates are probably my favourite savoury food in the world! 😉
Serves: 1 as a main, 2 as a side or part of a pixie plate
Ingredients:
1 sweet potato (~200-250g), chopped into 1-2cm cubes
Olive/coconut oil
Sea salt
Paprika
40g uncooked quinoa
200mL water
1/2 tsp lemon juice
A pinch of salt
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 tsp olive/coconut oil
1 red pepper, sliced
100g courgette/zucchini, sliced into 0.5 cm rings
100g aubergine/eggplant, sliced
What to do:
- Preheat the oven to 200C
- Place the sweet potato in a baking tray, drizzle a little olive/coconut oil on top, sprinkle some sea salt and paprika, then toss to coat
- Roast in the oven
- Meanwhile place your quinoa in a small pot on high heat with 200mL water, lemon juice, dried rosemary, and oil
- When it begins to boil, turn down the heat and keep the lid on, leaving it to cook for 15-20 minutes or until the water has gone
- When the sweet potato are almost ready (about 20 minutes), add the red pepper, courgette, and aubergine to the baking tray and toss again
- Roast for another few minutes until the peppers start to blacken
- Mix into the quinoa, then serve!
Hi Pixie. I am really inspired to start eating a plant based diet and I really love your blog. I was wondering if you could tell me where you found your starting off information and how you learnt about what foods to eat etc. I can’t seem to find the basic information anywhere and its really putting me off starting. Thanks 🙂
Thank you so much 🙂 they problem with the basic information is that there’s so much conflicting advice around now, and often from people who really haven’t done their research. As a scientist, the reason I eat the things I eat are partly because of the research I’ve done and partly because of the way they make me feel (I’m all for self-experimentation as everyone is different!) If you’re looking for a good starting point I would recommend Nutritiously Natasha’s “Food as Medicine 101” series, which actually features my post on sugar 😉 but if you have any specific questions I’m more than happy to answer them over email!