Student Feature – Julia Watkins
Julia Watkins
Julia Watkins is a second-year LFS student studying Food, Nutrition, and Health, with aspirations to enter the dietetics program. She is passionate about sharing nutritious, affordable, and accessible food with the UBC community. Her love of cooking and recipe development led her to join Campus Nutrition, a student-led non-profit dedicated to improving the campus food experience at UBC. Her role as a Food and Nutrition Coordinator allows Julia to creatively combine her passions for both food and writing. Julia also volunteers on campus at Agora Café, serving nutritious, low-cost meals and working to fight on-campus food insecurity.
In her free time off-campus, Julia loves to spend time outdoors, do yoga, and cook.
She shares her passion for nutrition on her Instagram platform, which is full of delicious recipes that nourish the body, and also has many tips on how to lead a balanced, sustainable, and healthy lifestyle. She can be found on Instagram under the username @cookingwithjuliaw.
Julia’s most recent Campus Nutrition blog post shares this original recipe for a meal-prep quinoa and chickpea salad with a simple lemon dressing. Her favourite thing about this recipe is how easy it is to adjust the ingredients and make substitutions depending on what she has on hand. She enjoys trying fun new protein and vegetable combinations to pack and bring for lunch on campus.
Quinoa Salad
Ingredients:
Salad:
- 1 cup uncooked quinoa of your choice
- 1 ½ cups cucumber, diced
- 1 bell pepper, diced
- ¾ cup carrot, diced
- 1 cup red onion, finely diced
- ½ cup parsley, finely chopped
- 1 can (19 oz) chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- Lemon wedge to garnish
Dressing:
- ⅓ cup lemon juice
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp water
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
How to Make it:
1) Cook the quinoa according to the specified instructions and allow it to cool.
2) While the quinoa is cooking, wash and cut the vegetables and prepare the dressing.
3) For the dressing, combine all the ingredients in a small bowl and whisk until well combined. Alternatively, add the ingredients to a glass jar, close the lid and shake well to combine.
4) Once the quinoa is cool, combine all the salad ingredients in a large bowl and top with the dressing. Mix well to ensure the dressing is evenly distributed.
5) Store the salad in an airtight container in the refrigerator and serve with a fresh wedge of lemon. Salad can be stored in the fridge for up to 5 days.