Pomegranate and Quinoa salad

I've just discovered that you can cook quinoa in a rice cooker. This means no more sticky-together or crunchy bits, no more burned quinoa stuck to the bottom of the pan, and no more constant checking. Just plop in 2 cups of quinoa to 4 cups of water, turn it on and go away.

As a result, I'm finally cooking more quinoa.

Quinoa has a very woody flavour, and it needs something with it to temper the strength of this, particularly if you are trying to get kids to eat it. I've tried it warm and curried (here), which I thought was pretty good, but it got the definite thumbs down from the kids. This time, I served it cold, and to balance the raw and dusty flavour, added pomegranate seeds for sweetness and mint for freshness. And pine nuts, just because I like them.


Ingredients:

• 2 cups quinoa, rinsed
• 4 cups water
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup pomegranate seeds
• 1/2 tsp all spice powder
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh mint
• pine nuts (kernals) - toasted gently in a dry pan
• squeeze of lemon juice
• a big slug of nice olive oil
• more salt and cracked black pepper to taste

Instructions

• Put quinoa, water and a pinch of salt in the rice cooker, and turn it on. You can toast your pine nuts while you wait.
• When quinoa is cooked, take it out of the cooker, stir in all spice and lemon juice and let it cool
• Add all other ingredients and stir.

Yep. Super hard. Not.

Try serving with labneh or thick greek yoghurt with a sprinkle of sumac.