Super Easy Mint, Quinoa & Pomegranate Salad

Looking for a light, refreshing salad you can throw together in minutes?  This is it!

​The great thing about this salad is you can substitue pretty much everything for anything else that's in your fridge/pantry and it still comes out a winner - sub ideas below.

​Pop all ingredients into a generous size bowl, find a nice place to sit down and enjoy!

​Ingredients:
​3/4 cup cooked quinoa (any colour).  For super easy quinoa cooking instructions, see below
​6 fresh mint leaves roughly chopped (or a handful of baby spinach)
seeds of 1/2 pomegranate (or 1/2 a grated fresh apple)
1 tablespoon chopped walnuts (or almonds/pine nuts).  Take it to another level? Toast the nuts!
​1/2 tablespoon chia seeds (any colour)
​1/2 tablespoon pumpkin seeds (or sunflower seeds)
1 teaspoon dried cranberries (or raisins/sultanas)
season with a squeeze of fresh lemon and a few grinds of black pepper

​Need more protein?  Add a boiled egg or some baked skinless chicken :)

Quinoa cooking instructions for people who can't cook
Yep, I'm not the best cook (probably why I like salads).  However, I've found an absolutely fail-safe way to make quinoa perfectly EVERY TIME.  No joke.  So here it goes:

​Measure out 1 cup quinoa (or any amount you want i.e 3/4 cup) into a sieve.  Wash quinoa thoroughly under cold water. 
Put washed quinoa into saucepan. 
Boil jug and measure out amount of boiling water (into the same object you used to measure the quinoa) that is slightly less than the amount of quinoa you used i.e 2 centimetres under the full amount of the 1 cup.  Add boiling water to saucepan. ​Swirl quinoa around so it's not in a clump in the water).
Set heat to High.
​Cover quinoa and boiling water with lid immediately.
​Once water starts to boil, reduce heat to low (simmer: so you can just see little bubbles).  Leave lid on.
​In about 5-6 minutes lift up the lid to see how you're going.  You want all the water to be evaporated and the quinoa just starting to stick to the base of the saucepan.  If you're not there yet, stir the quinoa with a fork and put the lid back on until you're at that stage (probably only a minute or so, happens quickly). 
​Once all water evaporated, turn off heat, take off lid and stir with a fork.  Put lid back on for 1-2 minutes.  The longer you leave the lid on, the more cooked the quinoa will be.. so if you like it a bit softer, leave longer, or crunchier, leave shorter.
​After 1-2 minutes turn out onto a plate to stop the cooking process.  Fluff with a fork.  Done :)