Winter quinoa and duck egg salad

All of us have our go-to recipes – the ones we've made time and again and they never fail to disappoint. One of ours is a simple, yet super-healthy winter salad, and it’s really filling, not to mention absolutely delicious.

To serve two, you'll need:
1.5 - 2 cups of quinoa
A bunch of asparagus, grilled in salt and oil
2 duck eggs, poached (or hen’s eggs)
2 large handfuls of rocket
2 handfuls of small-ish potatoes

For the dressing:
Half a cup of olive oil
1 heaped teaspoon of wholegrain mustard
1 teaspoon of honey
A splash of cider vinegar (optional)

Method:
1. Boil the potatoes and add the quinoa to a separate pan of boiling water (you can buy it pre-cooked, too). 2. Roll the asparagus in oil and sea salt, then pop them under the grill for ten minutes or so.
3. When the potatoes, quinoa, and asparagus are nearly done, drop your eggs into another pan of boiling water with a splash of vinegar.
4. Drain the potatoes and quinoa and place them into a large bowl with the asparagus. Add the dressing and mix everything together before splitting the mixture into two bowls.
5. Top each dish with your freshly poached egg, rocket and a good sprinkling of sea salt and pepper. Divine!
 

Poached eggs & quinoa cakes

Waking up to the sunshine on Sunday and a day of little plans ahead (delightful!), we decided to get creative in the kitchen.

After scrolling through a few ideas online and flipping through well-thumbed cookery books, we settled on an inventive way to have eggs - swapping the somewhat tiresome companion of toasted muffins for home-made and healthy quinoa cakes.

Here's how we made them...

Ingredients, makes 3-4 cakes:

1 cup of cooked quinoa

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1 egg

2 egg whites

1 onion (make sure it's finely chopped)

A good handful of mature cheddar

Salt and pepper

Spinach, wilted (or other leaves if you prefer)

3 poached eggs

Method:

1. Mix together the quinoa, egg yolks and whites, onion, cheese, salt and pepper.

2. Add in the bread crumbs and leave to stand for two minutes.

3. Pat mixture into 3-4 rounds, squashing them together with your hands.

4. Fry each cake in a large pan for about 7-10 minutes either side.

5. Top each cake with the leaves of your choice and a drippy poached egg.

Enjoy!