Quinoa Vegetable Salad

It's hard to beat the fresh flavor and dense nutrition of a leafy green salad piled high with your favorite fruits and vegetables and a fantastic dressing. But there's hundreds of other ways to create delicious, beautiful salads.

Today I have one more recipe you can add to your salad repertoire. It's hearty, fun, colorful and versatile. You can chop and change the vegetables, spices and herbs in almost any combination each time or stick to your favorites. You can switch the quinoa for another gluten free grain of choice like millet or brown rice, or leave it out entirely if you're sensitive to grains or healing, and instead use raw cauliflower processed in a food processor until it resembles rice.

This salad is wonderful alone or served on top of baby spinach, romaine, butter leaf lettuce or mache.

Quinoa Vegetable Salad

Ingredients:

• 2 cups dry quinoa
• 3 tomatoes, chopped
• 1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 orange bell pepper, chopped
• 1 medium cucumber, chopped
• 1/4 jalapeño, finely chopped (or more as desired)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp fresh thyme 
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• sea salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Cook the quinoa according to the instructions on the package. Set aside to cool.
2. Once cool, chop the other ingredients and toss with the cooled quinoa. Taste and adjust seasonings and flavor as desired.
3. If you prefer a warm salad you can stir the raw vegetables and other ingredients through the quinoa when it is just cooked and eat it right away.

This item posted: 21-Feb-2016