Quinoa Salad w/ Roasted Pumpkin and Orange

It is totally autumn here in the South of New Zealand; everything has turned yellow, gold and beautiful orange. Inspired by autumn; this salad is a celebration of warm sweet flavour and brilliant burnt orange colours. Roasted sweet pumpkin, wedges of orange, chickpeas and walnuts tossed through delicate quinoa with rocket, feta and dressed with a balsamic reduction. The orange really shines through and adds such wonderful flavour that really makes this warm salad.

Choose a nice piece of kent or butternut pumpkin and large juicy oranges. Although I haven’t tried it, I really think this salad would also work well with couscous instead of the quinoa, if you prefer. This is a truly yummy warm salad; full of flavour, texture and plenty of hearty ingredients to make a wonderful vegetarian meal or warm side salad. Enjoy!!

Preparation time: 35mins
Serves 4 (as a main)

1 cup quinoa1

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Spicy Pumpkin Soup

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This is one of our favorite soups. The grainy brown mustard is not as a strong a flavor as the yellow Dijon mustard. It is mild and almost sweet and nutty in it’s flavor.

Serving Size: 4

Ingredients:

1 (200 grams) fresh pumpkin, de-seeded and cut into bite sized pieces1 potato, peeled and cubed1 med. onion, chopped1 clove garlic, minced1 tbs. oil2 cups vegetable bouillon75 grams soy cream (optional)2-3 tablespoons mustard (brown grainy variety)sugarcinnamonsalt and pepper to tasteradish chips to garnish (optional)

Directions:

In a large pot, saute the onion in the oil, add the garlic, pumpkin pieces and potato.Pour the vegetable broth over and cook until all the ingredients are soft.Remove from the heat and transfer to a blender or a food processor.Puree.Add the mustard, salt, pepper and blend until smooth.I would suggest that you taste it now. We find that it is so lovely at this stage that we would not want to add any kind of cream.Season to taste with a pinch of sugar, a bit more salt if you want or perhaps a little bit more mustard.If you are serving this for the holidays, you could consider thinning the soup with a bit of white wine or dry vermouth. But honestly, we enjoy this lovely spicy pumpkin flavor so much, I wouldn’t want to detract from it.Optionally garnish with radish chips.