Quinoa and Fennel Salad from Green Farm Spa

This quinoa and fennel salad recipe is from Alice Yeates, our Nutritional Therapist. Alice reviews the menus for our Retreats to ensure they are balanced and support any dietary requirements that our Guests may have. Most of our food is sourced straight from the Farm and the Community Garden and with Alice's expert advice we can all keep healthy!

Serves 4-6, Preparation and cooking time 20-25 minutes
Ingredients

• 2 medium fennel bulbs
• 150g white quinoa
• 250g Broad beans, peas and edamame beans from M&S or Waitrose (You can use just peas, edamame or broad beans, I like the mixture.)
• 3 limes – Juice of 1 lime flesh of 2 more
• Fresh mint
• Fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 3 tbsp Olive oil
• Dessert spoon Natural yoghurt ( I used goat’s yoghurt) Optional
• Juice of one lime
• 30ml olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method

• Pour the quinoa into a pan with a little salt and add plenty of cold water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes or according to the instructions. Once the time is up, taste a little to make sure it’s cooked and leave it in the pan with the lid on. No need to stir at this stage.
• Once you have put the quinoa on to cook now prepare the fennel. Remove the outer leaves then chop them by quartering lengthways and then cutting across each quarter in small slices about 2mm in width.
• Put your 3 tbsp of olive oil into a large sauté/frying pan and gently heat. Now add the fennel and sauté until golden, this will take 5-8 minutes. It needs to be quite caramel in colour to get the flavour.
• While the fennel and quinoa cook you can prepare the dressing in a large serving bowl. Add all the ingredients and whisk together. If you are dairy intolerant don’t worry, this works just as well without the yoghurt.
• Now add the beans and peas to a pan of boiling water and boil for just a couple of minutes, drain and keep in a sieve for now.
• Bring it all together by adding the quinoa to the fennel and stirring it in, now add the beans and peas. Once combined add the whole thing to the serving bowl that already has dressing ready. Mix well.
• You can now add a little more olive oil if needed and season to taste. If you like herbs then chopped mint and parsley are great with this. Add 3-4 tbsp of each.
• Take the other 2 limes and, using a small, sharp knife, trim off their tops and tails. Now cut down their sides, along their round curves, to remove the skin and white pith. Over a small bowl, remove the segments from each lime by slicing between the membranes. Squeeze any remaining juice over the segments. Chop the segments into 3 or 4 and sprinkle over the quinoa, just stirring a tiny bit around the top of the bowl.

And there you have it, a delicious quinoa and fennel salad. Perfect for summer.

Serve the quinoa and fennel salad warm. It keeps well and makes a great dish for lunch the next day, goes well with fish or meat and if you don’t like quinoa you can make it with brown basmati rice instead. Very versatile.

If you'd like more nutritious recipes from Alice then please take a look at her website and sign up for her fortnightly newsletter as she shares recipes regularly.