Blood orange, beetroot and fennel quinoa

Serves: 4
Cooking Time: 1 hr 0 mins
Ingredients
  •  
  • Blood Orange, Beetroot and Fennel Quinoa 
  • Serves 4
  •  
  • 4 small beetroot
  • 250g quinoa
  • 1 tsp. Chinese Five Spice
  • Sea Salt
  • 3 blood oranges
  • 1 bulb fennel
  • 1 lemon
  • small handful of coriander, roughly chopped
  • Olive Oil
  • Raw beetroot, cut into thin matchsticks
  •  

Preheat the oven to 200C. Scrub the beets and wrap them in foil. Roast until just cooked, and a knife can easily cut into them. It usually takes up to an hour. Set aside to cool slightly then peel the beets and cut them into thick wedges. Set aside.

Rinse the quinoa and place in a medium pot with the five spice. Add 500ml water and bring to the boil. Simmer for 12 minutes till cooked and fluffy. Once the quinoa is cooked tip it into a wide serving dish and dress it immediately with the juice of 1 lemon, ½-1 blood orange and 2 tbsp olive oil. Season with salt and leave to cool slightly.

Divide the oranges into segments using a sharp paring knife. Discard the peel and white pith. Thinly slice the fennel. Keep any fronds on the fennel and finely chop them. Add the fennel fronds and the roughly chopped coriander to the quinoa. Taste for seasoning and add any extra citrus juice or salt as you see fit.

Layer the orange segments, fennel and beetroot wedges over the quinoa. Scatter with some raw matchsticks of beetroot if you like. You can fold it all together but it looks nicer layered. Drizzle with a little more olive oil and serve right away.

Lilly Higgins

Lilly Higgins

Lilly Higgins, a contributor to The Irish Times, is a food writer