Super salad platter

Ingredients


  • 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
  • 2 small sweet potatoes , (200g each)
  • 350 g broccoli
  • olive oil
  • 25 g cashew nuts
  • 25 g mixed pumpkin, sunflower and sesame seeds
  • 250 g vac-packed beetroot
  • 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • 300 g quinoa
  • 1 bunch of fresh mint , (30g)
  • 1 lemon
  • 1 ripe avocado
  • 6 tablespoons natural yoghurt
  • 1 punnet of cress

Description

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4. Crush 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds in a pestle and mortar. Scrub 2 small sweet potatoes and rub with the crushed cumin seeds. Place in a roasting tray and cook in the oven for 30 minutes.
  2. Meanwhile, trim the tough end off 1 broccoli stalk, slice it, then chop the rest into large florets. Toss the broccoli into the sweet potato tray with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Roast for another 30 minutes, or until the sweet potatoes are cooked through.
  3. Toast 25g of cashew nuts and 25g of mixed pumpkin, sunflower and sesame seeds in a dry frying pan on a medium heat until smelling fantastic, then crush in the pestle and mortar.
  4. Bash and mush up 250g of vac-packed beetroot in their pack as much as you can, then snip the corner off and decant into a bowl with 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. Mix together, mashing with a fork, if needed.
  5. Cook 300g of quinoa according to the packet instructions, and drain well. Pick and finely chop the leaves from 1 bunch of mint (reserving the pretty ones for garnish) and stir through the quinoa with the finely grated zest and the juice from 1 lemon, then season to perfection.
  6. Scatter the quinoa across a large platter. Once cool enough to handle, tear over chunks of roasted sweet potato and dot over the roasted broccoli. Halve 1 ripe avocado and use a teaspoon to add curls of flesh to the platter. Dollop over 6 tablespoons of natural yoghurt, spoon bombs of dressed beets on top, scatter over the toasted nuts and seeds and the reserved mint leaves, snip over 1 punnet of cress and serve.