Quinoa with roasted pumpkin and chickpeas salad

This is a great salad that combines healthy and savoury ingredients. Vegetarian, vegan, lactose-free, gluten-free: it is suitable to everyone and to all tastes. You can have it as a meal or it can accompany another dish - have you thought of our Cheese-filled Phyllo Pie??

For 4 servings

Ingredients:

100 grams of dried chickpeas (or 1 can of chickpeas)
½ teaspoon of baking soda
½ cup of quinoa
100 grams of fresh spinach
300 grams of pumpkin, peeled, deseeded and chopped into chunks
3 TSP of a mix of pistachios and sunflower seeds
5 TBSP of extra virgin olive oil
½ teaspoon of paprika
Salt
2 TBSP of raisins
Juice of 1 or 2 oranges
Juice of 1 lemon

Directions:

24 hours in advance, add the chickpeas to a large bowl and cover largely with water – consider that
chickpeas will re-hydrate and will triple the size. Add ½ teaspoon of baking soda. Soak the dried
chickpeas for 24 hours.

Then dry and rinse the chickpeas well.

Add the chickpeas to a large pan and cover with water – again, chickpeas will absorb a lot of water
so be generous! Bring to boil and then let simmer for at least one hour and a half – 2 hours –
chickpeas are ready when they are firm but soft.

Pre-heat oven at 190°. Place in an baking pan the pumpkin and chickpeas. Season with salt, 4 TBSP of extra virgin olive oil, paprika and the juice of 1 orange. Bake for 45 minutes, or until pumpkin is soft. Stir regularly to ensure pumpkin and chickpeas do not burn. Add more orange juice if needed. Pumpkin must remain firm and should not dry.

In the meantime, in a pan, bring to boil 1 cup of water with a pinch of salt. When boiling, add quinoa and cook for 15 minutes or until water is absorbed. Let it cool in the pan.

Let the pumpkin and chickpeas cool as well.

Quickly roast in a pan pistachios and sunflower seeds.

In a serving tray, place pumpkin, chickpeas, spinach, quinoa, raisins, mix well, add extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, pistachio and sunflower seeds, and mix.

Add a pinch of salt if needed before serving.



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