“I’ve gone totally retro here, and shaped this salad into a bomb. Just go with it, and I promise you everyone will be impressed when you whack this on the table. ”
Ingredients
- 250 g quinoa
- 1 big bunch of fresh mint
- 2 lemons
- extra virgin olive oil
- 1 red onion
- 250 g ripe tomatoes
- 1 cucumber
- 200 g Kalamata olives (stone in)
- 200 g feta cheese
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- red wine vinegar
Method
- Pop the quinoa in a pan with 450ml of boiling water and a few sprigs of mint and simmer over a low heat for 10 minutes.
- Turn off the heat and allow the grains to soak up any remaining water, then transfer the quinoa to a bowl, discarding the mint, and allow to cool.
- Once cooled, add the zest and juice from 1 lemon, along with a good drizzle of oil and a pinch of sea salt and black pepper.
- Peel and finely slice the onion, chop the tomatoes, then quarter, deseed and finely chop the cucumber.
- Crush the olives with the heel of your hand and get rid of the stones. Roughly chop them and place in a bowl with the onion, tomatoes, cucumber, feta and oregano (if you can buy flowering oregano, great, add a few shakes of that).
- Add the zest and juice from the remaining lemon, a good splash of red wine vinegar and a good lug of oil, and season to taste.
- Pick and finely slice the remaining mint leaves, saving any baby ones for later, and fold through the Greek salad.
- Scrunch up a large piece of greaseproof paper, then flatten it out again and oil it lightly on one side. Use it to line a 1.5-litre glass bowl.
- Spoon one-third of the quinoa into the bowl, top with half the Greek salad, another third of quinoa, the remaining Greek salad, and the rest of the quinoa. Press it all down with a spoon between each layer so it’s nice and compacted.
- Cover with another piece of greaseproof paper then place a small plate on top and sit something heavy on it. Refrigerate or leave somewhere cool to set for about 2 hours.
- When you’re ready to serve, carefully turn the salad out onto a board or plate, remove the paper, drizzle with oil and sprinkle over the reserved mint leaves. Serve with toasted pitta bread, sliced into fingers, if you like.
Source: Jamie Oliver
