I don’t know how it happened or when, but somewhere along the way I fell in love with this crazy food that reminds me a bit of brown rice and couscous all wrapped into one. It took me months to pronounce, quin-what??? Quinoa pronounced “keen-wha” is a gluten-free seed that is a complete protein, which provides all nine essential amino acids. Our bodies cannot produce these nine essential amino acids therefor, it must come from food. What does this all mean? Well, basically it means that it’s an uber healthy protein source that is nutty and rich and addicting! Yay, so it’s a win-win in our book. If you haven’t tried it, it’s time!! Oh, and one other great thing about quinoa is it’s great served hot or cold.
Stephanie Heymann Photography
A great place to break in your quinoa taste buds is with this Mango Quinoa Salad. It’s a cold salad filled with quinoa of course, sweet mangos, endamame, golden raisins, and toasted almonds tossed with honey lime vinaigrette. Bring this salad to your next backyard BBQ or dinner party and it will be a huge hit. Extra bonus, you will sound really cool since you now know how to pronounce it!
Stephanie Heymann Photography
- 4 C cooked red quinoa (can use any color - cook according to package instructions and cool)
- 2 mangos, chopped into ½ inch cubes
- ⅓ C golden raisins
- ½ C cooked shelled endamame
- ¼ C slivered toasted almonds
- 2 green onions, chopped
- S&P to taste
- juice of 2 large limes
- 2 Tbsp honey
- ⅓ C white balsamic vinegar
- ¼ C good quality olive
- In a small bowl add all of the ingredients for the vinagrette except for the olive oil. Slowly drizzle the olive oil while whisking. Set aside
- In a large bowl add all quinoa salad ingredients except S&P. Add vinaigrette and stir to coat, season with S&P to taste. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving.
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