Blazing Salads Cooking Demo

I've posted about Blazing Salads before, of course! Everything tastes great in there. For those who haven't heard about Blazing Salads, it is a Vegetarian /Vegan deli on Drury St, Dublin.
They have a seriously amazing vegan salad bar which contains a variety of different salads and toppings. You fill up a box with as much or as little as you want of the different salads. There is also hot food and soups which change daily, cakes, burgers, pizza and more!

Anyway, I got the opportunity to attend a Blazing Salads's cookery demonstration at the Dalkey Book Festival given by founders Pamela and Lorraine. They gave a very humble demonstation to a small crowd, provided great recipes, tips and most importantly, let everybody try the goods! They made a roasted vegetable quinoa salad and chocolate nut bars. The quinoa tasted amazing so I gave it a go this morning! They also gave great instructions for successfully cooking quinoa, see blow!

How to properly cook Quinoa:

I had never properly known how to cook quinoa before. Pamela and Lorraine gave a reliable method which works every time.This was great news for me because I like many people end up with wet and soggy quinoa!
It's equal parts quinoa to water. So 250g quinoa to 250ml water etc.

Cooking  Quinoa successfully: 1. Put the Quinoa in the pan along with boiling water salt and  vegetable stock (optional).
2. Put the lid on the pot and leave it on (this is very important). Bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes. The trick is to leave the lid on as you are going to be steaming it.
3. After 15 minutes of simmering just leave it to rest.

I find that to make sure it doesn't stick to the pan or get too compressed, pick the pot up and shake the quinoa around the pot while holding the lid on.

Roasted vegetable and Quinoa 
salad:

250g Quinoa
250ml Water
1 Aubergine
1 Courgette
1 Pepper
2 cloves Garlic
2 table spoons of chopped parsley
Basil leaves
Dried Basil
Salt
Olive Oil
1 tin of tomatoes

Cooking the Quinoa:
1. Put the Quinoa in the pan along with boiling water salt and  vegetable stock (optional).
2. Put the lid on the pot and leave it on (this is very important). Bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes. The trick is to leave the lid on as you are going to be steaming it.
3. After 15 minutes of simmering just leave it to rest.

While the quinoa is cooking prepare the veg. Chop the Aubergine, Courgette, Pepper into small chunks. Put the veg on a roasting pan along with the chopped garlic and olive oil. Sprinkle a pinch of salt and dried basil on top. Roast for about 20 minutes. Take the vegetables out and pour the tinned tomatoes over the veg and bake for a further 15 mins until soft.

Add the chopped parsley, basil to the quiona along with a few swigs of olive oil. Add salt to taste. When the veg has cooled, add it to the quiona. So yum and easy!

Toasted seeds

In the demo they talked about how great seeds are. I already knew this and always add them to my salads and hummous for extra nutrition. Sesame seeds in particular are very high in calcium. They introduced me to a delish new way to eat them, toasted with soya sauce! I always just eat mine raw but these cooked ones tasted amazing. Seeds are readily available and you can get packs like this in the whole foods section in Tesco. 

Anyway, if you simply pop them in the oven for about 5-10 mins and then pop some soy sauce on them, delish!