Carrot, Fig + Goats Cheese Salad (serves 3)

Ingredients:

12 small to medium carrots

6 radishes

10 green olives (halved and stoned removed)

50g quinoa

100g crumbly goats cheese

2 figs

Olive oil

1tbsp poppy seed

3 tbsp toasted pumpkin seeds

olive or avocado oil for roasting

Preheat the oven to 180C. Peel the carrots, chop in half, half the pieces lengthways, then cut into 2 or 3 long strips. Top and tail the radishes and cut into halves (unless small, you can leave those whole). Add the carrots and radishes to a roasting dish, season with salt and pepper and drizzle with oil, then roast until the carrots are soft and golden (about 25 - 30mins).

Whilst the veg is roasting, you can prepare the quinoa, put in a saucepan with a pinch of salt and cover well with water. Bring to the boil, then once boiling, lower to a simmer and simmer until the quinoa is cooked. I would put a timer on for about 8 mins, then check regularly until just cooked. You don’t want the quinoa to be very soft, you want it cooked with a nice bite to it. Drain and leave to cool - you can rinse with cold water.

Prepare the olives if needed by making sure the stones are removed (it’s easier to buy them de-stoned), and cut in half. Prepare the figs by cutting into 6 or 8 segments. You can also toast the pumpkin seeds by adding them to a dry frying pan and heating until they start to pop - keep them moving and be careful not to burn.

Once the veg is cooked you can remove from the oven and build the salad (you may want to leave it for 5 mins until warm rather than pipping hot). In a big salad bowl, mix the roasted veg with the quinoa, olives, figs, pumpkin + poppy seeds, then drizzle with a little more fresh olive oil, have a taste and more seasoning if needed.