North African Quinoa / Rice Salad
You know what is really good? Harissa. It has such a unique taste and a great hit of spice. I made this recipe up while craving a sort of “North African” flavor profile – lemon, parsley, raisins to cut the spice of the harissa. You’re going to like it.
Today I made this with a box of quick-cook brown rice / quinoa mix I found buried in my cupboard, but either on their own work. I like quinoa because of its high protein content but brown rice is nice for a change, and you still have the fiber to slow the absorption of the carbohydrate load.
Like my other grain based salads, this comes together in no time and makes quite a bit (not that its going to go uneaten long!). Its great as a side, but is balanced enough for a meal. If you don’t use harissa usually, its really worth getting a jar for this. The jars are usually small (so it won’t add to your condiment stash in your fridge for long), and making a quick dressing of harissa, honey, lemon & olive oil is the nicest topping for pretty much any roasted vegetable – I love it with roasted cauliflower…
North African Quinoa / Rice Salad
Ingredients
Dressing:
- 1 Tbsp harissa
- 1 Tbsp honey
- 5 Tbsp lemon
- 6 Tbsp olive oil
SALAD
- 1/2 cup raisins (plus more to top)
- 2 bunches parsley
- 1 bunch mint
- 1 red pepper
- 2 carrots
- 1/2 cup toasted almond slivers (plus more to top)
- 4 cups cooked brown rice (1 cup dry)
- 1 1/2 cup cooked green lentils (3/4 cup dry)
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Make the dressing by combining all dressing ingredients in a mug.
- Put raisins to soak in dressing.
- Put the oven to 200C and toast almond slivers on a baking sheet (watch carefully) for about 3 minutes.
- Prepare the vegetables: chop parsley, mint and red pepper. Shred the carrots.
- Combine all ingredients except almond slivers and toss with dressing.
- Salt to taste.
- Either stir the almonds through right before serving or serve topped with almonds & raisins.