Mediterranean Red Quinoa Salad

fancy bowl of my new quinoa salad – yum!  it’s sooo good!

Lately I’ve been in the mood for tabouli salad.  Years ago it was one of my go to salads whenever we were going to someones house for dinner or just for a change at home.  With all the bad rap wheat has been getting recently, I decided to try making a tabouli-like salad but sub in trendy quinoa for the bulgar wheat.  I happen to have red quinoa that my sister in law passed along to me for some reason.  We are a close family – we share food both cooked and raw 🙂  In any case, that is how my Mediterranean Red Quinoa Salad came to be.

Here’s the ingredients list:

1 cup organic red quinoa

1/3 red bell pepper, chopped

1/3 green bell pepper, chopped

1/4 medium sized red onion, chopped

fresh Italian parsely – about a quarter cup chopped (I cut mine up with cooking shears)

1-2 cloves fresh garlic, minced

3 T. lime juice

2 T. lemon juice

1/2 cup chopped organic red cherry tomatoes

1/2 cup chopped organic yellow cherry tomatoes

1/4 cup feta cheese crumbles

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Well this salad is pretty simple to put together and make.  I would say it took me about 20-30 minutes in all including quinoa cooking time.

Basically follow the cooking instructions on your quinoa, different brands cooking times may vary.  For the red quinoa I used here I put the 1 cup of quinoa in a pot along with 2 cups of water (so you can make more and just put double the amount of water as quinoa).  I brought the water to a boil and cooked the quinoa for about 2-3 minutes.  Then I reduced the heat to a simmer and let it cook down until the water evaporated which took about 8-10 minutes.  I took the pot off the heat and let it cool a bit.  Then I transfered the quinoa to a large bowl and doused it with lime juice and lemon juice – that is the secret ingredient to Mediterranean salads!  That along with lots of Italian parsley.  I grabbed about 1/4 of a bunch of Italian parsely out, washed it, and cut it into little pieces with cooking shears directly into my bowl of quinoa.

Next I got busy chopping.  Chopped about a third of a red bell pepper and about a third of a green bell pepper and threw those babies in the mix.  While I was at it I chopped up a quarter of a nice red onion and put it in the mixin bowl.   I found super sweet and yummy organic cherry tomatoes from Whole Foods – I just love them so!  Wash and cut the little maters into quarters and throw those in too.  Finally mince up a clove or two of fresh garlic and add as well as salt and pepper to your liking.  Stir it all up and add the feta cheese crumbles.  You can get fancy (like I did!) and garnish your salad with tomatoes and parsley or just mix it up and it eat it who cares.

My true test that this is an awesome recipe is that our 11 year old with a very fine and particular palate LOVED this salad.  Her exact words were ‘I can’t believe you made this salad mom – it tastes like it’s from a restaurant’ – ha!!  She’s eaten 2 days in a row now, amazing!

Hey, let me know if you try making Mediterranean Quinoa Salad ok?  Say something in the comments – I love to hear!  And subscribe to this blog for more great recipes and creative ideas.  Thanks for reading!!  xx o – Bita