Quinoa Produce Salad

Perfect Pairing:  Summer meal

I don’t think you can have too many good quinoa salad recipes.  This Quinoa Produce Salad is perfect for summer. 

It finally feels like summer around here!  I had a wonderful weekend celebrating Father's Day and all things summer.  My dad came home from his week of fishing in Manada (more appropriate than Canada).  Apparently he caught so many fish his hands hurt from reeling and cleaning the fish.  We did all of our favorite warm-weather activities like boating, swimming (more like bobbing on floats), sunset cruises, grilling, and doing everything we can outside.  It was a perfect weekend.

Quinoa Produce Salad is filled with fresh ingredients like multi-colored grape tomatoes, corn, green onions, and basil.  It is simply dressed with a little olive oil, lemon juice, and salt and pepper.

You wouldn’t think that something so simple could be so tasty.  I love the slight sweetness from the corn and nuttiness of the quinoa.  You could easily adapt this recipe by adding other favorite produce like roasted asparagus, edamame, roasted peppers, or other fresh herbs like tarragon or thyme.

This healthy and delicious salad is going to be a regular on my summer menu!

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Chicken and Pineapple “Fried” Quinoa, not Rice

Perfect Pairing: Pre-rinsed quinoa

Since my parents just moved my mom has had an opportunity to analyze all of her kitchen tools before storing them in their new home.  She ran across a lot of duplicates, and superfluous gadgets that did not make the cut.  She called me the other day as she was organizing her pantry and asked if I could think of any reason for her to keep the electric skillet.  We went over what we have used it for in the last few years and pretty much came up with one thing, fried rice.  We both agreed that this was not a good enough reason to keep a bulky piece of equipment and into the trash it went.

That discussion got me thinking about the fried rice she used to make.  I loved it.  It was salty from the soy sauce, filling, and about as ethnic as we got growing up.  I decided I was going to make my own variation of fried rice.  My recipe is very different from that original.  I guess they both had peas, soy sauce and eggs in.  That is where the similarities end!

Instead of rice I decided to use quinoa.  I LOVE that stuff.  Side note: If you are a fellow lover of the grain you may want to try this Spicy Quinoa, Tomato, Spinach and Chicken Sausage Soup and this Quinoa, Shrimp, Asparagus and Goat Cheese Salad.  Quinoa's health benefits far outweigh even brown rice.

To keep it extra healthy I used lots of vegetables like broccoli, mushrooms, peas, and edamame.  Fried rice from the local restaurant is going to be full of oil; this recipe uses only two teaspoons.  It is spicy, slightly sweet from the pineapple, filling, and delicious.  Most importantly, it is good for you!   

The Perfect Pairing for this recipe is pre-rinsed quinoa.  I made the mistake of buying un-rinsed quinoa once, and will not be doing that again.  I didn’t have a colander small enough to rinse it and had to come up with alternate methods.  I tried coffee filters, paper towels and draining through my fingers.  Long story short, I had a bit of a mess on my hands (literally) and a lot of wasted quinoa.  Do yourself a favor and buy the pre-rinsed variety!

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Quinoa, Shrimp, Asparagus and Goat Cheese Salad

Perfect Pairing:  Roasted Shrimp

I am a huge fan of quinoa.  If you have not tried it, you must!  It is so healthy and delicious.  I wrote about some of the health benefits and uses in my post for Spicy Quinoa, Tomato, Spinach and Chicken Sausage Soup.

I came up with this salad when I was at the grocery store with no plan.  Usually I have a plan… and a list.  Perhaps you remember my organized grocery list post.  It will change your shopping forever.  Anyway, I wanted a healthy dinner that would be easy to pull together.  I picked up some of my favorite ingredients that I thought would work well together.  Originally I wanted avocado but there were no ripe avocados that day so I went with goat cheese.  I am glad I did, I loved it in this recipe.  The end result is a healthy and satisfying salad that is great for a main dish.  I thought it was best served just slightly warm.

The Perfect Pairing for this salad is roasted shrimp.  You could buy pre-cooked shrimp but I think buying them raw and roasting them yourself improves the flavor tenfold.  The method is simple, toss the peeled and deveined raw shrimp with olive oil and salt and pepper.  Roast in a 400 degree oven until just cooked through.  After I found this method I decided that I will not buy cooked shrimp again unless I am in a real bind.

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Spicy Quinoa, Tomato, Spinach and Chicken Sausage Soup

Perfect Pairing:  Simple Parmesan Pepper Herb Croissants

I apologize for the long-winded name for this soup.  I tried to come up with something snappy, but kept coming back to Spicy Quinoa, Tomato, Spinach and Chicken Sausage Soup.  While it is an informative title it is not overly exciting!  I also tried to shorten it by taking out some of the ingredients but kept putting them back because I think they are all equally important.  This soup is light and tasty and full of healthy ingredients.

If you have not cooked with quinoa you should definitely give it a try.  I have been eating quinoa for a few years and I am a huge fan.  It is a true power food.  Apparently it is a recently rediscovered grain that was once a staple for the Incas.  It is a complete protein meaning it contains all nine essential amino acids.  It is full of fiber, gluten free and delicious.  I use it like rice or pasta, and cook it in reduced sodium chicken broth, which adds a lot of flavor.  I will undoubtedly be posting more quinoa recipes in the future. 

This recipe also features another one of my favorite ingredients, chicken sausage.  For this soup I used the Amylu Andouille variety, which are all natural and pork free.  They are just 100 calories each and full of flavor.  There are so many different varieties available like apple and gouda, spinach and feta, sundried tomato and basil, etc.  I keep these on hand in the freezer to add to soups, stir fry, or to heat on the grill.

The Perfect Pairing for this soup is a Simple Parmesan Pepper Herb Croissant.  I used one container of reduced fat crescent rolls, some fresh herbs I had on hand, and freshly ground black pepper to make these.  I unrolled the triangles of dough, cracked some pepper, topped it with 2 Tb freshly grated parmesan and ½ teaspoon of chopped fresh herbs.  I used thyme and rosemary since I had them on hand.  Roll up the dough, top them off with a little more pepper and bake according to the package instructions.  The cheese and herbs add a ton of flavor and make them extra pretty.  This used up all of my parmesan, and all I had left was the rind.  I tossed the cheese rind into the soup pot to add some extra flavor.

 

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