This is an easy work lunch or vegetarian dinner. The flavours are fresh and simple, just what you want in summer! As far as these sort of colourful bowls go it’s blissfully simple to make and full of all the flavour, texture and yum you could want.

I’m all about the crispy roasted chickpea at the moment. You might find one can is more than you need for these bowls, if that’s the case then just keep them in an airtight container and snack on them. if they get a bit soft just re-roast them and they’ll crispy right up.

Thankfully they’re the only thing you need to roast in the oven for this recipe. The rest is brief and easy stove top stuff and some chopping. It’s one of those meals that relies on the flavour of fresh vegetables and herbs to make everything sing so I haven’t actually spiced the chickpeas! I love some salt on them and that’s it, but you could chuck a little chilli powder or paprika on them too if you want some extra spice in your meal.

Bowls like this are my everyday go to food. I love it and usually make the salad components from whatever I have in the fridge. if you’re buying cabbage for this recipe try to just buy a quarter. The leftover carrot, cabbage and spring onion you may find yourself with is an amazing base for okonomiyaki – another one of my go to meals.

I haven’t included instructions on how to cook quinoa on here as they’re usually on the packet. If you have purchased in bulk and do not have said instructions and have not cooked it before this paragraph is for you. I have included instructions for previous recipes and you can have a quick squizz over here to see those wonderful instructions in action. Basically you need 2 cups of water for each cup of quinoa. Rinse your quinoa well and chuck it in a pot with your water, season, bring to the boil, cook for 15, stand for 10. For extra flavour you can cook it in stock or a mixture of stock and water. You can also sub with brown rice or any other grain if you’d prefer. You’d probably only need 1/2 cup uncooked for this recipe.  I eat quinoa a few times a week so sometimes just keep a couple of cups cooked quinoa in the fridge to add to salads like this.

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 can chickpeas

1 Tbs olive oil

1 cup quinoa, cooked

1 cup cabbage, finely sliced (red, green, anything you can get your hands on!)

1/4 cup mint (finely sliced)

1/2 carrot, grated

1/4 cup parsley (roughly chopped)

3 Tbs spring onion (finely sliced)

1 Tbs white wine or apple cider vinegar

1/2 an avocado, finely sliced

Spinach dressing

4 cups baby spinach sleeves

1 tsp olive oil

1 clove garlic

1/3 cup yoghurt

1 tsp lemon zest

1 Tbs lemon juice

Directions

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius and line an oven tray with parchment paper.

Crispy Chickpeas: Drain and rinse chickpeas. Pat dry and toss with 1/2 the olive oil. Place in a single layer on your lined tray and roast in your preheated oven for 30 minutes or until golden and crisp. Season with a liberally sprinkling of salt.

Slaw: In a large bowl place the cabbage, mint, carrot, parsley and spring onion. Drizzle over the vinegar and remaining olive oil, season and toss to combine. Set aside.

Dressing: Put a medium pan on medium heat and add the olive oil, once hot add the garlic, cook gently for 1 minute, do not allow it to colour. Add the spinach and toss until wilted. Place the wilted spinach in a mini food processor and blitz for 30 seconds. add the remaining ingredients and blitz until well combined. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Serve by dividing quinoa between bowls topping with slaw, avocado, chickpeas and a generous couple of dollops of the spinach and yoghurt sauce.

HH. x