Cost of living crisis: Healthy quinoa summer salad with seasonal vegetables on a budget

As the weekly grocery shop is up by 8.6% in Britain, the cost of living crisis is taking its toll on many households across London.

This week, I went to Asda to find a cheap meal idea.

Inspired by the hot weather, I decided to make a cheap quinoa summer salad.

Served with some seasonal vegetables and topped with feta cheese, it’s packed with nutrients and flavour.

Healthy quinoa summer salad with seasonal vegetables

The ingredients needed for a family of four are roughly:

• Two onions;
• One third of a bag of quinoa;
• One head of broccoli;
• Three carrots;
• And half a packet of feta cheese.

The price of quinoa in Asda is currently around £1.00.

A bag of carrots is 25p, so around 3.5p per carrot, while a head of broccoli is 55p, and a bag of onions is 65p.

The supermarket’s one brand Greek-style block of cheese is 70p. It’s not quite the same as feta but it’s definitely cheaper.

Overall, this came to around £3.15 but I plan to use the ingredients for multiple meals.

I’m not an experienced cook so I like to keep things very simple - and this recipe is as quick as it gets.

Method

I boiled the quinoa for 20 minutes.

Then I chopped the carrots, broccoli and onions.

After frying the onions, I added these to the quinoa to make a sort of base.

My top tip for less waste and to get that bit extra out of the food is to use the broccoli stalks, which are just as nutritious and contain lots of fibre.

Just remove the tough edges if desired and thinly slice.

Place the vegetables on top of the quinoa and sprinkle some feta on top.

Depending on your budget, I have added some basil and olive oil on top for extra nutrition but whatever herbs you have in the cupboard will work.

You can also season with salt and pepper, or any herbs and spices you choose.

This meal would feed around four people and I have only used half my ingredients.

To feed four, it costs around £1.50.