Quinoa Salad

I've been meaning to get into the whole quinoa frenzy, but hadn't quite gotten to it. Pronounced keen-wah, for a long time I was even pronouncing it completely wrong! kwi-no-ah. How embarassing! Haha!

We went to friends for dinner recently and were very pleased to be presented with such a colourful and tasty meal, including the oh-so-healthy quinoa

It's similar to cous-cous in look, and somewhat in taste too. However quinoa is a grain derived from South America, where-as cous-cous is a form of pasta made from wheat and derived from Morocco. Quinoa can be considered a superfood because it is so high in protein and contains many essential amino acids :)

This salad was so yummy, and served with an equally delicious turkey loaf (sorry, no recipe for that). I am lucky enough to have been given the recipe for the quinoa salad and share it with you lovely folks!

Serves 4-6

Dressing:

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp fine mustard - grainy is best

1 tbsp brown sugar

3 tbsp apple cider vinegar

Ground pepper to taste

Add a splash of juice from the mandarin tin (see below)

Salad Mix:

1 cup quinoa (uncooked) – can be red or white

¼ tsp curry powder

Pinch of salt

½ cup carrot julienne

½ cup green onions, chopped

½ cup corn kernels

½ cup red/yellow peppers, chopped

1 small tin mandarin orange slices

½ cup toasted and salted nut mix of your choice

½ cup dried fruit of your choice (we had it with dates/cranberries)

Cook quinoa with curry powder (1 cup quinoa to 2 cups water). Once cooked, let stand for 5 minutes before fluffing with a fork. Salt to taste, then chill.*

Mix chilled quinoa, carrots, green onions, corn, peppers, green onion, mandarin slices, nuts and dried fruit with dressing to taste.  Chill for 1 hour.  Serve over whole romaine leaves.

Enjoy!