Tastes Like Food

A delicious and unique side salad, this is great to take to barbecues and picnics. It doesn’t have any mayo, eggs or dairy, so you don’t have to worry about leaving it out if you’re partying all day. I love this salad, it tastes like summertime to me!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup quinoa
• 2 cups water or vegetable broth (vegetable broth will add more flavor)
• 1 tsp very thinly sliced red onion
• 1/2 cup chopped bell peppers (red, green, yellow)
• 1/4 cup chopped tomato
• 1 cup fresh baby spinach (or chopped regular spinach)
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1 tsp cumin (Be forewarned, this salad is generous on cumin. If you’re not a fan, you can scale it back.)
• juice of 1 lime
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Rinse quinoa and remove any debris or discolored grains.
2. Add quinoa plus liquid (either water or broth) to pot. Bring to a boil and then simmer for approx 15 minutes or until liquid is absorbed.
3. Meanwhile, combine olive oil, lime juice, cumin, peppers, onion and tomato and set aside. (This is all the ingredients except the spinach.)
4. After quinoa is cooked, move to colander and set aside to cool.
5. Combine warm quinoa, bowl of spices and veggies and spinach. Mix well.

Note: Let the quinoa cool based on your preference for crisp spinach or wilted spinach or somewhere in between. I like my spinach ever so slightly wilted, and I let the quinoa cool for about 7-8 minutes before combining with the spinach, so the heat from the quinoa can soften it up just a little.