Fig, mint & almond salad - MOROCCO

I've been saving up a few posts to use for days such as today, where I am stuck in bed with the flu, my only movement being to flip the pages of my book and to boil the kettle for tea. Actually I've haven't even done that, I've got two fabulous flatmates who have been refilling my tea cup faster than I can drink it and would probably read my book to me too if I asked. Bless them.

Anyway today's post is not a dish particular to Morocco but more just a combination of flavours that are quite common. It would be more traditional to use couscous but I'm trying to balance out all the naughty food I've been eating so I used quinoa instead. 

FIG, MINT & ALMOND SALAD - MOROCCO

Ingredients:

2 figs

a handful of fresh mint

1/3 cup almonds

1 cup quinoa

handful of rocket

1 tbs balsamic vinegar

1 tbs agave syrup

1/4 cup olive oil

1 tsp lemon juice

salt & pepper

Instructions:

Cook then quinoa in 2 cups of water for 10-15 minutes, drain and set aside to cool.

In a jar mix the balsamic vinegar, agave syrup, olive oil, lemon juice and salt and pepper. Shake and pour over the quinoa. Roast and roughly chop the almonds, dice the figs, chop the mint and add them all to the quinoa, mix together and serve.

Papa J's rad salad

One of the great things about David Bann Restaurant, aside from the food of course.. and well obviously I'm going to say the service too, since I'm a waitress there... is the diversity of the staff. 
A lot of customers ask me whether the staff are vegetarian or not. The answer is no. There's a mix of carnivores, semi vege and vegan staff working there.
At first I thought it was odd that there are so many meat eaters working at a vegetarian restaurant, but really it's a good thing. Not only are the chefs great at what they do, I think it's important for carnivornes to see that you can create fantastic food without using meat.
In the past, when I've been working at other (non vege) restaurants, it's amazed me how chefs seem to be completely stumped when trying to come up with a meal to feed a vegan, or even a vegetarian.
Even something as simple as a salad can be made delicious with the right ingredients, yet the amount of times I would be served up a plate of lettuce with a scattering of tomatoes, usually followed by the chef asking if I really didn't want any feta on my salad and informing me it would taste a lot better. 
Which is why I am so happy now working at David Bann and being served up delicious meals every day. In fact I think quite often I forget just how lucky I am.
Further more, having non vegetarian chefs in the kitchen can lead to interesting conversations, one chef in particular (who wishes to remain anonymous, so I shall give him a rad nickname... 'Papa J'), brings up some interesting questions frequently, and has a surprising wealth of knowledge about vitamins and what I need to eat in my diet to keep myself healthy.
Apparently Doritos are not healthy. Who knew? (though I'm still not convinced).


In the end though, all we really need is to be more educated. I never knew how important it was to take B12 before Papa J kept harping on about it, and perhaps before working at David Bann's, Papa J didn't know how to make such an awesome vegan salad.