Herby Quinoa and Plum Salad

Quinoa is a nutty flavoured seed from the South American Andes and it has been used for over 6000 years. I use quinoa in this recipe, but it can easily be replaced by bulgur wheat or couscous. The herbs, plums and dressing in this fresh and healthy salad go really well together.

Serves 4:

Salad:

- 250 g quinoa

- 2 cups water

- 1 small onion, finely chopped

- 1 garlic clove, finely chopped

- 3 tbsp olive oil

- 6 tbsp lemon juice

- handful of parsley, finely chopped
- handful of mint, finely chopped

- 10 plums, depitted and cut in 4

- salt

- pepper

Yoghurt dressing:

- 150 ml yoghurt

- squeeze of ketchup

- chives, finely chopped
- 1 small clove of garlic, finely chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder 

Soak the quinoa for about an hour and resoak or rinse it very well under running water while rubbing it with your fingers to get rid of the natural bitter soapy coating (saponin). Drain. 
In a pan with the water bring it to a boil, cover with a lid and simmer for 12-15 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to sit for 5 minutes with the lid still on. Fluff with a fork and let cool for 30 minutes, then transfer to a salad bowl.
Mix in the onion, garlic, parsley, mint, oil and lemon juice.
Season with salt and pepper.
Add the plum wedges and refrigerate for at least half an hour.
Mix the ingredients for the yoghurt dressing in a small bowl.
Serve the salad piled up on a big serving plate with the dressing in a little bowl on the side.

Cold Tomato and Pepper pasta Sauce

This sauce is one of the easiest and most successful pasta sauces and.... the next day you can serve the leftovers as a salad. The combination of hot pasta with this cold sauce with its cooked and raw elements is amazing. It's easy to make in advance, for a lot of people or to serve as side dish for a bbq. I still have to meet the first person that doesn't like this sauce/salad.

Serves 4-6:
- 1/2 kg cherry/plum tomatoes
- 2 red peppers
- 1/2 onion, finely copped
- 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
- 1 tsp sugar
- pinch of salt
- good splash of olive oil
- good splash of red wine vinegar
- (1/2 chili pepper, deseeded and finely chopped)
- handful Italian basil
- grated Parmesan




Cut the red peppers in half (better not use orange or yellow, because the skin doesn't come off as easily as the red pepper skins) and put them under the grill until they are blackened. Immediately, put them in a plastic bag (this will steam the skin off) until cooled down. When cooled, remove from bag (keep the liquid in a salad bowl), peel off the skin and cut into thin slices.
Put half the tomatoes under the grill until they start to burst open. You can roast the peppers and the tomatoes together at the same time, but the tomatoes will be ready much earlier than the peppers. Put them in the salad bowl.
While the tomatoes are still warm add onion, garlic, sugar, salt, vinegar and olive oil.
Add the pepper and the halved rest (the ungrilled part) of the tomatoes.
If you like it hot, add the chili.
Chill. (and put sauce in fridge)
Before serving, stir in the chopped basil.

Serve with (hot!) pasta and freshly shaved or grated Parmesan.