Quinoa Salad with Tangy Tahini Sauce

This light salad is perfect for hot days - or any day for that matter! It's delicious!

This light salad is perfect in the spring and summer because it is easy to digest. It is especially suitable for people with dominant Vata doshas. Pitta doshas should add more mint than parsley and should avoid eating too much sauce. Kapha doshas should skip the sauce and cheese and add black pepper and an extra portion of cayenne pepper.

Quinoa Salad Ingredients (for six people)

• 3 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 handfuls of fresh parsley
• 2 handfuls of fresh mint
• 1 ½ cups of water
• 1 cup of dried chickpeas
• 1 cup of quinoa
• 1 pinch of asafoetida
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ⅓-½ cup feta cheese
• ⅓ cup raisins
• ⅓ cup of dried or fresh tomatoes or cocktail tomatoes

Note: Depending on how traditionally you want to prepare the dish, you can leave out the cheese and raisins for a more traditional experience. When combining the individual ingredients, Ayurveda says to avoid combining vegetables with cheese and/or fruit. You should also avoid combining grains with fruit

Ingredients for the Tangy Tahini Sauce

• 2 teaspoons fresh ginger, grated
• 1 tsp honey
• 1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds, roasted
• 1 tsp coriander seeds, roasted and ground
• 1 pinch of paprika
• ½ cup of Tahini
• ⅓ cup of fresh lemon or lime juice
• ⅓ cup of water

Preparation

1. Wash the chickpeas thoroughly with cold water and then soak them in plenty of water overnight.
2. Wash the quinoa thoroughly. The quinoa can also be soaked overnight in water, then it is easier to digest.
3. Drain the water from the chickpeas and boil them in fresh water with a pinch of asafoetida (for about 45 minutes). When cooking, the foam should be skimmed off with a spoon. When the chickpeas are soft, pour off the water and rinse the chickpeas.
4. While the chickpeas are cooking, add the quinoa with half a teaspoon of salt and one and a half cups of water to a pot and boil for ten to fifteen minutes until all the water has been absorbed. Remove it from the stove, dribble olive oil on it and stir. Pour the quinoa into a large bowl for cooling.
5. While cooking the chickpeas and quinoa, prepare the other ingredients. Chop the mint, parsley and tomatoes roughly and soften the raisins and tomatoes with twice the amount of warm water.
6. Put all the ingredients for the Tahini sauce in a blender and mix everything until the sauce has a creamy texture. The sauce should end up being as thick as a normal salad dressing. (You can add more or less water accordingly.)
7. Next, add the raisins, tomatoes, chickpeas, parsley, mint, cinnamon and the feta to the quinoa.
8. Stir everything together and add the Tahini sauce. Season with salt and pepper.
9. Enjoy!