Quinoa Apple Salad

Here's a great tasting little salad that I made recently that used up a few random odds and ends I had in my fridge. It turned out so well I felt obliged to share it with you. I made mine with quinoa but you can substitute almost any small rice, pasta or carb. It would probably work well with puy lentils too. The ingredients are mostly white or green so it looks really fresh and has a lovely combination of textures. Feel free to change it up a bit; add some avocado, play around with the nuts and seeds or maybe add some olives. Give it a whirl and let me know what you think!

Apologies for the poor photo, but it's the only one I have!

Ingredients

Approx 1 mugs of cooked quinoa
2 sticks of celery, chopped
half a cucumber, chopped and deseeded
half an onion finely diced (salad/spring onion would be better)
half a green pepper, chopped
1 finely chopped garlic clove
1 peeled and diced apple
a large handful of toasted hazlenuts, almonds and pumpkin seeds (lightly crushed or chopped)
1 tbsp lemon juice
pinch of coarse salt (I used salt with chili)
2 tbsp yogurt, sour cream or sour cream and chive dip 

The hardest part about making this is all the chopping and toasting. After that all you have to do is mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl, cover it with some cling film and pop it in the fridge until you're ready to eat it. This will keep for a day or two so should see you through two lunches.