Quinoa with summer beans

Serves 4-6

Versatile: Quinoa with summer beans (Jason Lowe)

Quinoa is a versatile pseudocereal seed, often mistaken for a grain. It serves as as a good replacement for couscous or rice. You can buy different coloured quinoa from good wholefood shops, which allows you to experiment a little.

It's only really been a larder staple of mine for a year or so, and I'm still a bit of a quinoa novice. But it's certainly a popular item on healthy menus lately.

80g quinoa, soaked in cold water for an hour
80g peas
80g broad beans
10-12 green beans
4 spring onions, trimmed and finely chopped
4-5tbsp chopped parsley
4-5tbsp chopped mint
100ml olive or rapeseed oil
The juice of 1 lemon
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cook the quinoa in simmering lightly salted water for about 20 minutes or until the seeds open up and are tender. Drain in a f sieve and leave to cool.

Meanwhile, cook the broad beans and peas by boiling in salted water for 2-3 minutes, then drained. You can remove the tough outer skins of the larger broad beans if you wish. The green beans should be boiled for 3-4 minutes then drained, trimmed and finely chopped.

Once the quinoa has cooled, mix it with the beans, chopped onions and all the other ingredients and season to taste.