Recipe and images by Amber Bremner
This colourful café-style salad is a real treat! Made with a quinoa base, tossed with roasted kūmara, peppery rocket, crunchy nuts and seeds, quick-pickled blueberries and red onion, and dressed with a bright maple mustard vinaigrette, it’s a stunner light meal or side dish. Pickled blueberries are the highlight – they’re just lightly pickled, enough to elevate their sweetness and bridge the gap between sweet and savoury.
Serves 4–8
Pickled blueberries and onion
1 cup firm, fresh blueberries
1 small red onion, very thinly sliced
½ cup apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp maple syrup
½ tsp fine salt
a good grind of black pepper
a few sprigs of thyme
Salad
2 medium orange kūmara (about 600 g), peeled and cut into 2 cm cubes
1 tbsp olive oil
salt and black pepper
¾ cup red quinoa, rinsed
2 large handfuls rocket
½ cup toasted almonds, roughly chopped
¼ cup pumpkin seeds, toasted
Maple mustard vinaigrette
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1½ tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tsp maple syrup
1 tsp Dijon mustard
¼ tsp salt
a good grind of black pepper, to taste
For the quick-pickled blueberries and onion, combine the vinegar, maple syrup, salt, pepper and thyme in a small pot. Bring just to a simmer, then remove from the heat. Add the blueberries and sliced red onion and stir gently to coat. Set aside to cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally.
Preheat the oven to 220°C fan bake (or 240°C conventional oven). Toss the kūmara with olive oil, salt and pepper, and spread out on a lined baking tray. Roast for about 20–25 minutes, or until tender and caramelised around the edges. Set aside to cool.
While the kūmara is roasting, add quinoa to a pot of boiling water. Simmer for 12–15 minutes, until tender and the tails have released. Drain and leave to sit in a sieve over a pot, to steam dry and cool.
Pop the vinaigrette ingredients in a small jar or sealed container and shake to combine.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the quinoa, roasted kūmara, rocket and most of the almonds and pumpkin seeds. Drain the pickled blueberries and onions and gently stir them through the salad. If you’re serving it later, pop it in the fridge, otherwise continue on and serve it at room temperature.
Just before serving, pour over the vinaigrette and gently stir to coat the salad. Scatter with remaining almonds and pumpkin seeds and serve.
