Quinoa is a cereal or perhaps a grain that I’ve eaten for the first time in NYC nearly four years ago. My aunt Petra made a cool side dish with it – and this quinoa salad is a variation of that dish. Since it is pretty hot these days in good ol’ Slovenia I’ve decided to make it on this lovely sweaty Monday in August and bring it with to a picnic. The other quinoa salad, was sweet, but really nice also.

Ingredients:

150 g quinoa

200 g of cherry tomatoes, cut

250 g of cucumber, cut

50 g of olives, cut

150 g of feta cheese (I used a lactose free one)

50 g of spring onions, cut

50 g of sweet corn

black Hawaiian lava salt

Tellicherry pepper, freshly ground

extra virgin olive oil

balsamic vinegar

basil leaves

How – to:

Cook the quinoa according to the instructions on the package. 150 grams of dry, non-cooked quinoa will make about 400 to 450 grams of cooked quinoa. Once cooked, let it cool (will take you basically no time if you rinse the cooked quinoa with cold water!).

Whilst the quinoa is cooking away prepare the veggies: wash and cut the spring onions, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, olives and sweet corn. Cut the feta cheese.

Put all the veggies, quinoa and cheese into a bowl and mix well. Season to taste with salt, pepper, oil and vinegar. Add some basil. It will smell fab!

Get creative … no vinegar? Use the juice of a freshly squeezed lime or lemon.

The Hawaiian black salt is obviously just as good as any other – but on photos it looks really cool. And if you’re anything like me, you’ll like the food to be extra nice looking. And then there's Instagram...

Don’t have the ingredients that I used? I’m positive that the result (quinoa salad) will be just as fresh and nice tasting with other vegetables.

Like a spicy kick? Use a cut up fresh chili of if you don’t have any a bit of chilly flakes or chili infused olive oil.