I love Quinoa salad. Before I became gluten free I had never heard about Quinoa(pronounced keen-wa)…
But in researching all the foods I could not eat-I learned about many grains that I could eat-and quinoa was one of them.
Quinoa is a grain from South America. It is high in protein and the protein it supplies is a “complete protein”, which means it includes all nine essential amino acids. It is GREAT food to start eating!
So, in my pre-gluten free days, I used to eat Tabouli( a cold salad made with bulgar) Now, I can’t eat bulgar anymore-but I can substitute quinoa in the salad.
And I LOVE IT!
I make this salad and keep it in my fridge for the week-eating it along the way, and loving every bite.
This is my version of tabouli-and there are many substitutions that you can do-varying ingredients by what you have in your fridge.
[print_this]Recipe: Quinoa Salad
1 cup quinoa
1 lemon
1/3 cup grapeseed oil
½ cucumber, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
Small pkg grape tomatoes
1 cup feta cheese, chopped
Fresh herbs….mint, cilantro, parsley, dill(if you do not have any fresh herbs, you can use dried-but the flavor is not nearly as intense)
In a cooking pot, add 1cup quinoa and 1 ½ cups water. Bring to a boil, cover with a lid, turn down heat to simmer.
Cook for 15-20 minutes.
Remove Quinoa from heat, fluff with a fork and let cool.
Once cool, transfer quinoa to a bowl, and add chopped vegetables, oil, juice from lemon, cheese, and herbs. You can vary the herbs to your taste. It depends what I have on hand-sometimes, I add a lot of mint, other times, more dill. Use a combination of all.
It is fantastic! Store in the fridge. [/print_this]
**There are many internet sites with information on quinoa, and all its amazing properties. You can check out
