Quinoa, Feta and Avacado Salad

Today we're trying quinoa, pronounced KEEN-wah, an edible seed from the goosefoot family.  It is said to be, according to the BBC Good Food website, a supercrop having all eight of the essential amino acids, and is packed with fibre, magnesium, iron and phosphorus. We've never had it before, it looks similar to cous cous and I've made a salad with it for lunch, here's what I did:

Ingredients:

                   100g quinoa, rinsed well

                   300g water/stock

                  1 ripe avocado

                  100g feta cheese

                  Cucumber

                  Cherry tomatoes

Method:

                  Rinse your quinoa thoroughly.

                  Bring 300g of water or stock to the boil.

                  Add quinoa, stir, then reduce heat and cover pan with a lid, simmer for 20 minutes, or until almost all of the water has been absorbed.

                 Take off the heat and allow to cool.

                 Prepare you avocado by running a knife around the middle then twisting the two halves apart.  Peel off the skin, if your avocado is ripe this will be easy, if any bits of skin stay on the avocado then use a knife to cut them off.

                Chop avocado into cubes.

                Cube your feta cheese, cucumber and slice cherry tomatoes in half.

               Wash your lettuce and pat dry, place in a large bowl, add all of your ingredients (make sure your quinoa is cold) and toss.

Quinoa is gluten free and stated as safe for coeliacs, I have read that it does contain a protein which some coeliacs and gluten sensitive people react to so I guess I'll see how I am later on!

Lupin Girl x