Quinoa Salad

Quinoa is one of our favorite Super Foods!!  Full of everything your body needs in a day, fiber, vitamins, minerals, healthy fat, carbohydrates and protein and more!  AND...it's Gluten Free!!

This salad is a wonderful way to introduce people to quinoa.  Once you make it once, you may find doing like us and making double batches to have as side dishes through the week, serve on top of salads for lunch or just to have to snack on throughout the day!


The best part about this recipe is you can mix up the ingredients to your liking.  Add or omit ingredients to this recipe to make it your own!  This also makes a perfect side dish to take to work or family get togethers!  But be prepared to be asked for the recipe!

Quinoa Salad

Ingredients:
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 tsp ground cumin
6 tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 tsp sea salt
3 cups cooked quinoa
1 cup cooked peas
1 cup cooked black beans
6 green onions, chopped fine
1 large organic yellow or green bell pepper, stemmed and diced
1 large organic red bell pepper, stemmed and diced
1 1/2 cup fresh parsley, coarsely chopped
3-5 oz organic feta cheese, crumbled (add as desired)

Directions:
1. In a large bowl, add quinoa, peas and black beans. 
2. Cut off about 3 inches from green tops of onions.  Chop finely.  Put into bowl along with bell peppers, parsley and feta cheese.  Mix all ingredients together.
3. In a separate bowl, combine olive oil, cumin, salt and lemon juice. Whisk ingredients together thoroughly before pouring over salad mixture. Mix ingredients one last time before serving.

Tips:
For best results, cover and refrigerate the mixture for at least one hour before serving to enhance the flavors of this dish.
If you are going to serve this salad later, reserve the cumin/lemon dressing mixture in a separate container.  Just before serving, pour over the salad and mix well.
When preparing quinoa, be sure to wash the small seeds thoroughly before cooking to remove the bitter coating called saponin

Hope you enjoy!!