Red quinoa and poached chicken salad with roasted hazelnut, peas, watercress and lemon oil dressing

Shall we go shopping? Isn’t this just a wonderful world…

Before we go any further, I am not suggesting shoes or handbags. I know all too well that no woman can resist the spell of beautifully-designed stiletto heels or the charm of a must-have leather bag.

After 12 years in the luxury market, 32 designer handbags and I can’t even begin to count how many pairs of shoes later, I have learnt my lesson.

The kind of shopping that i want to talk about is food. Gourgeous food of course! I must say that old habits die hard so unsurprisingly I’m thinking about food shopping in one of the world’s most fashionable places … Paris!

Still, there’s nothing wrong with a bit of summer shopping wearing a crispy cotton-print dress, flat diamante-thong sandals and carrying a country-chic willow basket. It’s like looking in the mirror!

That is exactly what I did last summer, shopping for fabulous, new ingredients in this wonderful city. Everything was so beautifully packaged and incredibly temtping that it was almost impossible not to buy and taste everything.

One of the things that I liked the most was the red quinoa that we bought from La grande épicerie, think Harvey Nicks meets La Rive Gauche. As soon as I came back to England I introduced the red quinoa with poached chicken salad to my customers.

But the red quinoa was always difficult to get hold of. So, I was very pleased when one of my suppliers included it in their selection!

As it is now possible to buy red quinoa from good health food stores, here is the wonderfully easy recipe for everyone that is so deeply found of this salad.

http://www.delsole.co.uk/recipes/red-quinoa-and-poached-chicken-salad-with-roasted-hazelnut-peas-watercress-and-lemon-oil-dressing/

P.S. For your summer shopping outfit drop the diamante-thong sandals for a pair of comfy pumps. Swollen feet in hot temperatures and sharp edges of the diamante are not a good combination!

Or just get a Joe Le Taxi to take you everywhere and never walk more than 10 minutes at a time!