Jennifer Aniston kind of made this combination of ingredients go viral when she shared it as her go-to salad. She wasn’t really specific about the process or quantities or how she dressed the salad, but that’s where it’s fun to get creative! This is right up my street; kind of like an amped-up Greek salad, I can’t believe I didn’t have the idea myself! This is how I like to make it…
INGREDIENTS
Salad:
Cucumber
Red onion
Feta cheese
Chickpeas (pre-cooked)
Pistachio nuts (you can use pre-roasted or toast the raw nuts as below)
Green olives
Light quinoa
Fresh mint
Fresh parsley
Dressing:
Lemon juice
Honey
Extra-virgin olive oil
TIPS & NOTES
Personally, I like to toast my quinoa in the oven, but if you’re in a rush or your oven just isn’t on and you don’t want to preheat it for this alone (or the weather is hot and you want an oven-free meal!), feel free to skip this step and just boil the quinoa. As long as you toast it in the oil before adding water and only add the amount of water described below, there’ll still be a good amount of flavour and firmness. Toasting it in the oven after boiling is just an extra added textural touch!
I also like to de-seed my cucumber so that I can prep this salad ahead of time and it doesn’t get too wet and sloppy. Once again, that’s just my personal preference so you don’t have to do this.
Finally, if you’d like to ribbon your mint, simply stack the de-stemmed leaves on top of each other and roll them into a little package. Then take a knife and make fine slices, moving down the length of the package to create these ribbons.
Jennifer Aniston insired Greek Quinoa Salad
A Greek-style salad with quinoa and pistachios, insired by Jennifer Aniston
Ingredients
- 1/2 a cup of dried light quinoa (c.125g) (rinsed)
- 150g of cooked chickpeas (drained and rinsed)
- 1/2 a medium cucumber (scrape out the seeds with a spoon and cut the rest into small chunks)
- 1 small red onion (finely diced)
- 50g of pistachio nuts
- 60g of feta cheese (crumbled or diced into smallish cubes)
- 60g of green olives (roughly chopped)
- A handful of fresh parsley (c.3g) (de-stemmed and finely chopped)
- A handful of fresh mint (c.3g) (de-stemmed and finely chopped or ribboned)
- 1/4 a cup of extra-virgin olive oil (c. 60ml) plus extra for cooking
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 1 tsp of honey
- Salt and pepper to taste
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 180C if you’re toasting your quinoa
- Add a little olive oil to a small lidded saucepan over a medium heat and add the quinoa with some salt and pepper – toast for a couple of minutes in the oil before adding 3/4s of a cup of water (a 1:1.5 quinoa to water ratio)
- Cover and allow the quinoa to cook for around 15-20 minutes (reduce to a simmer halfway through the cook time) until all of water is absorbed
- In the meantime, if youre using raw pistachios, over a low heat, toast them in a frying pan for 5-7 minutes total, tossing around the nuts in the pan at regular intervals – once cooled, give them a rough chop
- If toasting the quinoa, take a large sheetpan, line it with greaseproof paper and spread it over the surface with as little pile-up as possible – add some extra salt, pepper and olive oil and bake in the oven for 20 minutes, stirring halfway through
- Whilst the quinoa cools, assemble the dressing in your small jar or salad shaker (alternatively a small cup or jug paired with a whisk will do the job) – add the lemon juice, honey and 1/4 cup of extra-virgin oil with some salt and pepper and shake / combine thoroughly
- Add the cooled quinoa to the chickpeas, olives, toasted chopped pistachio nuts, red onion, cucumber and fresh herbs, feta, pour over the dressing and toss together to combine
Let me know if you try my take on the viral Jennifer Aniston salad!
See how I make it here:
But First, Food 
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