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June 14, 2012 9 Comments

Food on Fridays: Fiesta Quinoa Salad

For the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome—though we love to try new dishes, your post doesn’t have to be a recipe. We’re pretty relaxed over here, and stories and photos are as welcome as menus and recipes. When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the button to include with your post. It ties us together visually. Then fill in the boxes of this linky tool to join the fun!

Food on Fridays with Ann

Quinoa. That new-old grain that everyone’s talking about because of its health benefits.

My friend Charity served me a quinoa salad not long ago, and I loved it so much, I resolved to learn how to prepare the grain to use as a salad base. So I found this recipe that inspired the following combination, which reflects some substitutions to include elements from yet another recipe. Here’s my creation: Fiesta Quinoa Salad.

Fiesta Quinoa Salad

Rinse one cup of quinoa (through cheese cloth or a fine mesh strainer). Then, dump the rinsed quinoa into a rice cooker and add two cups of water. Click start. (You can cook it on the stove, but using a rice cooker is extra-easy. Also, some quinoa won’t need rinsing—just read the bag or box to learn more.)

As the quinoa cooks, cut up all the goodies you’ll be adding.

  • Dice one tomato
  • Cube one avocado
  • Dice one sweet red pepper (or orange, or yellow, or green)
  • Drain and add one 14 oz can of black beans
  • Peel and cut into small pieces one orange
  • Mince cilantro
  • Salt and pepper

Mix all of this into the cooked quinoa, using a big bowl because all the add-ins increase volume significantly. You could also add corn and little green scallions, but I didn’t this first time.Mix up the following dressing:Lime Dressing

  • 1 juicy lime
  • 1 Tbsp agave syrup
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • 3 Tbsp vinegar
  • black pepper

Mix up the dressing and stir some of it into the salad. Add salt to taste, sampling a spoonful. Decide if you think it needs more or all of the dressing and add as much as you think seems right. Serve immediately.

This is a fresh and satisfying main dish on a hot summer day; an interesting side dish for cookouts.

* * * * *

Photos by Ann Kroeker. “Pin” these images in a way that links back to this particular page, giving proper credit.

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Filed Under: Food on Fridays Tagged With: fiesta quinoa salad, quinoa, quinoa preparation, quinoa salad, southwest quinoa salad

Comments

  1. April@The 21st Century Housewife says

    June 15, 2012 at 6:48 am

    Your quinoa salad looks delicious – I love all the ingredients and the lime dressing sounds wonderful. I’ve shared an older post for one of my family’s favourite cakes – updated with a link back to you 🙂 Thank you for hosting!

    Reply
  2. Barb @ Frugal Local Kitchen says

    June 15, 2012 at 8:26 am

    Hey, I just bought quinoa at Costco’s this week. I must have known you’d post this. 😉 I have a recipe for baking the quinoa. I need to find it and post it.

    Reply
  3. sara stone says

    June 15, 2012 at 10:30 am

    Yum! I just bought my first box of quinoa and can’t wait to start using it – this is a great combo of ingredients – thanks for the inspiration!

    Reply
  4. Megan Willome says

    June 15, 2012 at 10:44 am

    Love quinoa! I’ve used those add-ins, just because they were laying around, but I like the addition of lime dressing. It’s just not a fiesta without lime and cilantro.

    Reply
  5. Hazel says

    June 15, 2012 at 6:59 pm

    We had a Mormon friend who wrote two cookbooks about grains. She was not total vegetarian, but she did use many types of grains. She and her husband stayed with us for about two months one year, and was our main cook. We enjoyed some special treats. I don’t remember her using quinoa but I will check it out.

    Reply
  6. Simply Darlene says

    June 16, 2012 at 2:04 pm

    Yummaroo and vegan too! That recipe looks so good.

    I’ve been using this wonder grain for several years now. I like to mix it with brown rice and simply add olive oil, sea salt, and pepper. We also use it for sweet dishes too… add rice milk, cinnamon, honey, and fruit.

    Oh yes, I agree with Megan, it just ain’t a fiesta without cilantro and lime!

    (wipe-wipe) That’s me wiping the drool off my screen.

    Reply
  7. Laura says

    June 16, 2012 at 10:04 pm

    This salad sounds great, and it looks so pretty! I’m married to a meat-and-potatoes boy who is not at all adventurous in terms of food. I have to sneak new things in…

    Looks great, though. I just may try it out on him!

    Reply
  8. Charity Singleton says

    June 18, 2012 at 9:00 pm

    I am stopping on the way home tomorrow to get the ingredients for this recipe! Looks amazing.

    Reply
  9. mental health statistics says

    February 28, 2016 at 4:57 pm

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