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Thai Chicken Quinoa Salad

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You know when you have a craving for something and you just can’t get it out of your head until you have it?  Well, maybe you don’t but we people who are obsessed with food, often have experiences like this.  Don’t judge.  This Thai chicken quinoa salad is one of those recipes that we’ve had in the back of our head forever and have been wanting to make and it finally happened!!  We really cannot be happier about this one either.  The flavor combo is so good.  You are going to want to put this recipe in your rotation.  It’s a perfect make ahead meal to have on hand in the fridge.

We always seem to have leftover chicken because I often make up a big batch at the beginning of the week to toss into salads or whatever.  This recipe came together very easily because it’s full of ingredients that were in my fridge and pantry at the time.  Talk about a win!

The dressing is a cinch to make.  Just whisk together the garlic, ginger, rice vinegar, canola and sesame oils, soy sauce and brown sugar in a small bowl.

Simply make up a batch of quinoa according to the package directions.  In a large bowl, add the quinoa shredded carrots, purple cabbage, edamame, diced red bell pepper and green onion and toss with the dressing until it’s nicely combined.

Either enjoy it right away or let it hang in the fridge for up to five days.  It probably won’t last that long though…you will eat it all!!

Enjoy!

 

 

 

Thai Chicken Quinoa Salad
 
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Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
  • 1 C. uncooked quinoa - cooked according to package instructions
  • 1 cooked chicken breast, sliced thin
  • 1 medium carrot, grated
  • ½ red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
  • ½ C shelled endamame
  • 2 C purple cabbage, sliced into thin strips
  • ¼ C green onions, green tops only - chopped
For the Dressing:
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 tsp freshly grated ginger
  • ½ C rice vinegar
  • 2 Tbsp canola oil
  • 1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil
  • 2 tsp soy sauce
  • 1 tsp brown sugar
Instructions
  1. For the dressing:
  2. In a small bowl whisk all ingedients together, set aside
  3. For the Salad:
  4. Add cooked and cooled quinoa, sliced chicken, grated carrots, red pepper, endamame, cabbage and green onions to a large bowl. Whisk dressing again before pouring over salad, toss to coat. Either serve immediately or chill, can store in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Summer Watermelon Salad

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Oh hi watermelon salad just sitting there looking all pretty.  Such a show off!  Nothing screams summer and 4th of July like a big, juicy, perfectly ripe watermelon.  We both love, love, love this salad, it’s pretty much served at every summer bbq at both of our houses.  The second star of the show aside from the watermelon is the fresh mint.  It’s an unexpected flavor that totally completes the salad and makes it what it is.

One little side note story, I was at the grocery store the other day and I guess it was just bad timing, but I happened to be there at the same time as 5 fireman.  I really hate it when that happens….such a buzz kill.  I promise this story relates to this watermelon salad and not hot firemen, just stick with me!  I was in the produce section and one of the produce employees came out with a watermelon cut in half and gave it to one of the fireman to inspect.  Genius!  Why do I never do that?? How much does it suck when you buy a watermelon and get home and its all mushy and gross?? Huge pet peeve of mine! So from now on I’m having my watermelon split open before I take it home.  The fireman told me that he got in big trouble at the firehouse last time he went back with a mushy watermelon. He now gets his watermelon cut open before he brings it back to the station so he doesn’t get yelled at for buying mushy watermelon.

The point of this story is to get your watermelon cut open before you leave the store and also make this watermelon salad because it’s really damn good.

Stych Photography

Summer Watermelon Salad
 
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Serves: 6
Ingredients
  • ½ medium seedless watermelon or a whole small seedless watermelon, cut into chunks (approx 4 C)
  • ⅓ C red onions, sliced thin
  • ¾ C feta cheese, cut into cubes
  • ¼ C fresh mint, chopped
  • kosher salt to taste
For the Honey Lime Vinaigrette:
  • juice of 2 large limes
  • 2 Tbsp honey
  • ⅓ C white balsamic vinegar
  • ¼ C good quality olive oil
Instructions
For the Honey Lime Vinaigrette:
  1. In a small bowl add all of the ingredients for the vinaigrette except for the olive oil. Slowly drizzle the olive oil while whisking
For the Salad:
  1. In a medium bowl add all salad ingredients, except salt. Drizzle the honey lime vinaigrette over the salad and toss. Sprinkle with kosher salt to taste.
Note - There will be a lot of the honey lime vinaigrette leftover. Store the remaining in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Chicken & Broccoli Soba Noodle Salad with Peanut Sauce

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Chicken and broccoli soba noodle salad with peanut sauce for the big Win tonight!  Yep, it’s a family favorite and well, another way to mix up the chicken and broccoli thing.  So, my kids have recently been telling me that I’ve been making too much chicken and they are “bored” with it!  C’mon, can’t a lady catch a break? (insert eye roll emoji)  I happen to think they are just lucky that I make them dinner at all!!  ha  Okay, sorry.  That was a quick diversion but I needed to get that off my chest.  This dish however, is not something that the family will tire of.  They actually love it and I think you will too.  It’s a cinch to make and also happens to be bursting with flavor.

So real quickly, I must jump on my soba noodle high horse just so you know why we are fans.  Soba is Japanese for buckwheat.  These buckwheat noodles are a nutritional powerhouse.  They are packed full of protein, fiber, iron and are low in fat.  While they are not a carb free noodle, they are lower in carbs than a white flour pasta.  Soba noodles have a texture that is very similar to pasta and have nutty flavor.

So to make this dish,  you just need to cook the noodles according to the package directions, rinse with cold water and set aside.  Cook the chicken in a large skillet over medium and set that aside to cool so you can shred it.  Then prepare the peanut sauce by whisking all of the ingredients together.  Your last step is to steam the broccoli so it’s not hangin out too long waiting for all the other ingredients.  Just give it a quick steam so it’s al dente and not mushy.  Mushy broccoli is a major no no.

Once everything is ready to go, toss the ingredients together in a large bowl with the peanut sauce.  Top with the green onions and red pepper flakes and you are good to go!  Feed the family chicken like this and they literally can’t complain!


Soba Chicken & Brocolli Noodle Salad with Peanut Sauce
 
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Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 9 oz package soba noodles
  • 1 lb chicken tenders
  • 2 tsp sesame oil
  • 2 C brocolli
  • ⅓ C green onions, chopped
  • S&P
For the Peanut Sauce:
  • ⅔ C creamy natural peanut butter
  • ⅓ C red wine vinegar
  • Juice from 2 large limes
  • ¼ C coconut aminos
  • 3 Tbsp sesame oil
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 Tbsp fresh grated ginger
  • ½ tsp crushed red pepper flakes (+ more to taste)
  • ⅓ C warm water
Instructions
  1. Cook soba noodles according to oackage directions, drain and rinse with cold water. Set aside
  2. Season chicken with S&P. Heat sesame oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook each side approximately 4 minutes until cooked through. Transfer to a paper towel lined plate to cool. Once cooled, shred into bite sized pieces.
  3. While chicken is cooking add all ingredients for peanut sauce and whisk until completely smooth.
  4. Cut brocolli into small florets. Steam for 3-4 minutes until al dente.
  5. Add soba noodles to a large bowl. Add shredded chicken, brocolli and sliced green onions. Pour half over peanut sauce over the top and toss to coat. Store in the fridge or serve immediately. Drizzle additional peanut sauce over the top of each serving.

Cucumber & Fennel Salad with Lemon Basil Dressing

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Cucumber and fennel salad with lemon basil dressing please!  The sun has been shining in the desert and that just makes us crave a healthy, clean, delicious and cold salad.  Phew!  Thank goodness for the sunshine…she gets lots of credit for this one! ha ha Anyway, this salad is literally bursting with flavor.  We happen to love fennel so it’s a win anytime we can incorporate it into a recipe.  We have used the lemon basil dressing in some of our other recipes like this chopped chicken salad  so you might want to check that one out too because it’s just too good.  Okay, back to the star of this show…this salad is so refreshing and makes a perfect side dish.  Pair it with your favorite fish or some grilled chicken and you are good to go.

There’s only a few cast of characters in the recipe which makes us happy.  All you need is an English cucumber (we prefer these guys because they have fewer seeds than the other cucumber guys), a fennel bulb, avocado, celery and the lemon basil dressing.  You can make the dressing in advanced so this salad is even more of a cinch to throw together.

Just chop everything up and throw it into a bowl.  For the fennel, you want to use the bulb and the leaves.  They have so much flavor.

 

You can make the dressing ahead of time which makes this salad even more of a piece of cake.  ha ha You wish this salad was cake!  Wow.  It must be late.  Please don’t judge.  Anyway, if you haven’t made the dressing yet, add all of the ingredients to your blender and blend it up.  Add the olive oil slowly after the rest of the goods are blended.

Drizzle the dressing over the salad and toss until it’s all nicely combined. Yum!


Cucumber & Fennel Salad with Lemon Basil Dressing
 
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Serves: 6
Ingredients
  • 1 english cucumber, seeded and chopped
  • ¾ C fresh fennel bulb, sliced thin and roughly chopped
  • ½ C celery, chopped
  • 1 Tbsp fresh fennel leaves, chopped
  • 1 large avocado, cut into cubes
  • ½ C lemon basil dressing
  • S&P to taste
  • *Optional - ½ C crumbled feta cheese
For the Lemon Basil Dressing:
  • juice of 1 extra large lemon or 2 medium lemons
  • 1 clove garlic chopped
  • 1 C loosely packed fresh basil leaves
  • ¼ C 0% plain greek yogurt
  • 1½ Tbsp honey
  • ¼ C good quality olive oil
  • S & P to taste
Instructions
  1. For the lemon basil dressing - Add all ingredients except for olive oil into a blender or use an immersion blender. Blend until basil is thoroughly mixed. Slowly drizzle olive oil in with blender on until combined. Add S & P to taste, set aside.
  2. In a large bowl add chopped cucumber, fennel, celery and fennel leaves. Add dressing and mix until coated. Season with S&P to taste. Add chopped avocado and feta if using and gently fold into salad.

Tortellini Pesto Salad

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Tortellini pesto salad for the win.  First of all…homemade pesto.  That is all.  I could almost just end this post right here because it’s just that good, but I will take a few minutes to elaborate and enlighten you as to how this can be in your life.  You deserve to know this so here goes.  First of all, if you are intimidated by making your own pesto, it’s time to let go of your fear and give it a try.  It’s actually so easy, you will wonder why you waited so long to do it yourself.  You can always buy pesto but you really cannot replace the homemade stuff.  So you just need to start with a big bunch of fresh basil, some pine nuts, fresh garlic, parmesan cheese and olive oil.  Put all of the ingredients (minus a half of the olive oil) into a food processor and blend it up.  Slowly drizzle in the remaining half of the olive oil and scrape down the sides of the bowl if you need to.  Season with a little kosher salt and freshly ground pepper and you have yourself a big ‘ol bowl of deliciousness.  Can you even believe how easy that was?  Yay.  Great job!

Once you have that pesto made up, the world is your oyster!  You can now put that stuff on whatever you want!  That is exactly what we did with this tortellini dish here.  To prepare this recipe, you simply cook the tortellini according to the package directions.  Drain it, then transfer to a large bowl.  Add the pesto and red wine vinegar and toss.

then add the cherry tomatoes and fresh spinach and stir until combined.  Season with salt and freshly cracked pepper and voila!  You have the most delicious meal that can be enjoyed hot or cold.  You can eat some now and save some for lunch tomorrow.  It’s delicious the next day too!  This is a very popular dish in our home.  We hope you enjoy!

 

Tortellini Pesto Salad
 
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Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
  • 1.5 lbs fresh cheese tortellini
  • ½ C prepared pesto - see recope below or used storebought - Costco has a great Kirkland brand pesto
  • 2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
  • 2 C cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 2 C fresh spinach, stemmed and chopped
  • kosher salt and cracked pepper to taste
For the Basil Pesto:
  • 2 C packed fresh basil leaves
  • ¼ C toasted pine nuts
  • 1 cloved garlic, chopped
  • ½ C grated parmesan cheese
  • ½ C good quality olive oil
  • S & P to taste
Instructions
  1. Boil fresh tortellini according to package instructions - usually 2-3 mins. Drain and rinse with cold water (can also serve hot, if serving hot do not rinse with cold water).
  2. Transfer tortellini to a large serving bowl. Add pesto and red wine vinegar and stir to coat. Add tomatoes and spinach and stir until incorporated. Season with S&P to taste. Serve immediately or store covered in the fridge until ready to serve.
For Basil Pesto:
  1. In a food processor combine basil, cheese, garlic, pine nuts and ¼ C olive oil. Slowly drizzle in the remaining ¼ C olive oil while the food processor is running. Season with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper to taste. Store in airtight container in refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Roasted Delicata Squash Quinoa Salad

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Roasted delicata squash is not only pretty to look at, it’s absolutely delicious to eat as well.  If you have never had delicata squash, we encourage you to give it a try.  You’ve probably walked right past it in the grocery store a million times and though nothing of it.  During the fall, there are all kinds of interesting multi colored and crazy shaped squash displays lining the isles at the market.  Who knew that there could be so many different ways to cook with these guys?  The most exciting or interesting (if you find squash facts interesting like we do…don’t judge) about delicata is that you can eat the skin. What?  Really?  Eat the skin?  Are you serious?  Yep, you hear me.  You can just eat the whole darn thing.  I know, you are pretty excited about your new squash knowledge.  Now you can make this recipe for your friends and really impress them.

Anyway, it’s a very simple recipe so check it out.

Start by cutting the squash in half, removing the seeds and cutting it into 1/2 inch round half slices.  Toss the squash pieces in a bowl with olive oil and maple syrup then spread them out on a parchment lined baking sheet.  Season with some kosher salt and roast in the oven for about 30 minutes.  You want them be a pretty golden brown color.  While the squash is cooking, you can prepare the quinoa according to the package directions, then allow it to cool.

Once the squash is fully cooked,  remove from the oven and set aside to cool.  Make the vinaigrette using a blender or an immersion blender.

Transfer quinoa to a large bowl, add in the delicata squash, the almonds, the orange infused dried cranberries, feta cheese and toss with the vinaigrette.  Season with salt and pepper and voila!  You are ready to enjoy.  You can also store the leftovers in the fridge for up to 5 days.  Chances are, you’ll eat it all before then but just so you know your options.

 

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Roasted Delicata Squash Quinoa Salad
 
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Serves: 6
Ingredients
  • 1 C dry quinoa cooked according to package instructions
  • 1 medium delicata squash - halved, seeded and sliced into ½ inch half-rounds
  • 2 Tbsp pure maple syrup
  • 1 Tbsp good quality olive oil
  • ¼ C slivered almonds
  • ¼ C orange infused dried cranberries - or regualr dried cranberries
  • ⅓ C feta cheese, crumbled
For the Red Wine Vinaigrette:
  • 1 Tbsp dijon mustard
  • 1 Tbsp 0% greek yogurt
  • ¼ C red wine vinegar
  • 1 Tbsp pure maple syrup
  • 3 Tbsp good quality olive oil
  • 1 clove garlic chopped
  • kosher salt and cracked pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 425. Toss sliced delicata squash in a bowl with olive oil and maple syrup. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Spread squash evenly over baking sheet. Season with kosher salt. Roast for 30 minutes until golden brown, allow to cool.
  2. For the vinaigrette, add all ingredients to a blender and blend on high until mixed, set aside.
  3. Allow quinoa to cool and add to a large bowl. Add in roasted delicata squash, almonds, dried cranberries and crumbled feta. Drizzle with vinaigrette dressing and tpss to coat. Season with S&P to taste. Serve immediately or cover and store in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Quinoa Salad with Creamy Poppy Seed Dressing

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Once again, we found ourselves experimenting with quinoa because we are literally obsessed with it’s versatility.  You can pretty much turn any of your favorite salad combinations into a quinoa salad by simply swapping out the lettuce for well, you guessed it, quinoa.  It pairs beautifully with both savory and sweet ingredients which is why we decided to go down the poppy seed dressing path this time.  This recipe is very simple and made up of some of our favorite classic ingredients.

Before you begin, just whip up a batch of quinoa.  If you are anything like us, we pretty much always have a batch of this in our fridge.  It’s a staple on weekly prep day because of the versatility.  So, prepare the quinoa according to package directions then allow it to cool.

Cut up the red grapes, cucumber and parsley.  Then crumble the feta cheese.   Toss all of the ingredients into a bowl with the quinoa.

To prepare the dressing, just combine all of the ingredients in a blender or use an immersion blender to mix them up.

Drizzle the poppyseed dressing over the ingredients and toss until it’s all nicely combined.  Season with salt and pepper and either serve and eat immediately or cover in the fridge for up to 5 days.  This salad makes great leftovers!


Quinoa Salad with Creamy Poppy Seed Dressing
 
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Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 1 C quinoa cooked according to package instructions
  • ¾ C red grapes, halved
  • ¼ C pistachio nuts, shelled
  • ⅓ C feta cheese, cubed
  • ½ english cucumber, seeded and chopped
  • ½ C italian flat leaf parsley, chopped
  • S&P to taste
For the Creamy Poppy Seed Dressing:
  • 1 tsp dijon mustard
  • 1 Tbsp honey
  • ¼ C apple cider vinegar
  • 1 Tbsp 0% plain greek yogurt
  • 2 tsp poppy seeds
  • ¼ C good quality olive oil
Instructions
  1. Cook quinoa according to package instructions. Set aside to cool.
  2. While quinoa is cooking prep salad ingredients and poppy seed dressing. Add all poppy seed dressing ingredients to a blender, or use an immersion blender. Blend all ingredients together until completely incorporated..
  3. Add quinoa to a low bowl. Add grapes, pistachios, feta, cucumber and parsley. Mix with poppy seed dressing, gently gold ingredients with a spatula. Season with S&P to taste. Serve immediately or cover and refrigerate for up to 5 days.

Summer Lemon Pasta Salad with Spinach

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We call this recipe our summer lemon pasta salad for one simple reason.  During the summer, things should be easy and we often need to be able to feed large groups of people at the drop of a hat and that’s exactly what we can do with this dish.  We will also mention that it tastes absolutely amazing and when we make this one for friends, everyone literally freaks out over the dressing.  It’s our lemon basil vinaigrette and it might be one of the most amazing things you’ve ever tasted.  Sounds aggressive but we really stand behind that statement.  Go ahead, give it a try and you’ll see for yourself.

Check out how easy this recipe is to make…

We just love this multi colored pasta from Trader Joe’s.  Look how pretty it is.  You can use whatever spiral pasta you prefer but we suggest something with some color as that always just brings it up a notch.  We also pretty much add spinach wherever we can because well, it pairs just beautifully with so many ingredients and we’ll take extra vitamins (A, B and C) and fiber and folic acid (to name just a few of the benefits) whenever we can.  Gotta love yummy edible vitamins!!  Just chop it up and set it aside.

Then,  just cook up the pasta according to the package directions and then drain and rinse with cold water.  While the pasta is cooking, prepare the lemon basil vinaigrette.  You can use a blender or an immersion blender to combine all of the vinaigrette ingredients.

Then transfer the pasta and chopped spinach to a mixing bowl and drizzle with the lemon basil vinaigrette.  Toss to throughly combine and season with salt and pepper.  Serve as is or add your favorite protein such as grilled chicken.  This salad is very versatile so you can also add your favorite veggies too.

We hope you love this recipe as much as we do!

Summer Lemon Pasta Salad with Spinach
 
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Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
  • 1 - 16oz package spiral shaped pasta
  • 2 C fresh spinach, stemmed and finely chopped
  • kosher salt & cracked pepper to taste
For the Lemon Basil Vinaigrette:
  • juice of 1 extra large lemon or 2 medium lemons
  • ¼ C red wine vinegar
  • 1 clove garlic chopped
  • 1 C loosely packed fresh basil leaves
  • ¼ C 0% plain greek yogurt
  • 1½ Tbsp honey
  • ¼ C good quality olive oil
  • S & P to taste
Instructions
  1. Cook pasta according to package instructions. Drain and rinse with cold water.
  2. While pasta is boiling assemble the lemon basil vinaigrette. Add all ingredients except for olive oil into a blender or use an immersion blender. Blend until basil is thoroughly mixed. Slowly drizzle olive oil in with blender on until combined. Add S & P to taste.
  3. Add pasta to a large bowl. Add chopped spinach and gently fold in. Add desired amount of lemon basil vinaigrette.
  4. Season with S&P to taste. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Good Thyme Tip - This is a very simple salad, you can add a protein such as chicken or extra veggies like cherry tomatoes and asparagus. Feta or parmesan cheese would be great in this too!

Mediterranean Quinoa Salad with Creamy Red Wine Vinaigrette

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I absolutely love Greek Salads, so we’ve created our own Mediterranean Quinoa Salad.  I mean, how can you not love this?  The flavor combination is pure perfection and that’s where the creative inspiration for this kicked up quinoa came from…so we present to you today our totally off the hook, bursting with flavor, have to have it, Mediterranean Quinoa Salad with Creamy Red Wine Vinaigrette!  The good news is that the kids love this one too!  When that happens, it’s like woohoo!!!  Happy dance!  Anyway, the other good news is that this salad is really easy to make.  You could even throw it together if you have some leftover quinoa in the fridge…if you don’t have any, that’s okay, just boil some up and you’ll be ready to go.  After you cook your quinoa, transfer it to a bowl to cool.  You can get started on the rest of your salad while it’s cooling.

The remaining ingredients are easy peasy.  I’m on this massive yellow bell pepper kick lately.  I made 3 other recipes this week that have them in it.  I can think of worse things to be on a kick with right??  So, just simply chop up the bell peppers, cucumber (I prefer an English cucumber and also leave the skin on), cherry tomatoes, feta cheese and kalamata olives.  My daughter always requests extra olives.  I don’t blame her for I too love me some olives.  I also added in some fresh chopped flat leaf parsley.  You don’t need a ton but adding a little will just brighten up the flavor.

The creamy red wine vinaigrette that you will drizzle over this salad is so darn good!!  I know I say this a lot but it’s so good I could drink it.  I don’t because that’s weird but that’s how delicious it is.  I make my dressing in the blender simply because it’s easy to throw everything in at once and turn it on.  You can also use an immersion blender. So all you need is red wine vinegar, dijon mustard, plain greek yogurt, garlic, lemon juice, honey, good quality olive oil and some salt and pepper! Get that all blended up and pour it over your salad, toss away until it’s nicely covered.  You don’t have to use all of the dressing, just add it to your liking.  You can reserve any leftover dressing in a covered container for a week in the fridge.  This salad is also fantastic the next day too.  I like to have it on hand for lunch (both for the kids and myself)…if that’s the case, it will go fast!  Hope you enjoy!


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Mediterranean Quinoa Salad with Creamy Red Wine Vinaigrette
 
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Serves: 6
Ingredients
  • 1 Cup raw quinoa - cooked to package instructions
  • ½ Cup kalamata olives - sliced
  • ½ Cup cucumber - chopped
  • ½ Cup cherry tomates - sliced
  • ½ Cup yellow bell pepper - chopped
  • ½ Cup crumbled feta cheese
  • 1 Tbsp flat leaf parsley - minced
  • fresh cracked pepper to taste
For the Creamy Red Wine Vinaigrette:
  • 1 Tbsp dijon mustard
  • 1 Tbsp 0% greek yogurt
  • 1 Tbsp lemon juice
  • 2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
  • 1 Tbsp honey
  • 3 Tbsp good quality olive oil
  • 1 clove garlic chopped
  • pinch of salt and pepper
Instructions
  1. In a saucepan over medium heat, prepare quinoa according to package directions and set aside to cool
  2. Transfer quinoa to a large bowl and add the remaining ingredients
For the Vinaigrette Dressing:
  1. Combine all ingredients in a blender or use an immersion blender to combine. Drizzle salad with vinaigrette dressing and toss until well combined

Mango Quinoa Salad

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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.

kariquinoasalad

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!

quinoasalad

Stephanie Heymann Photography

Mango Quinoa Salad
 
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Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
  • 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
For the Honey Lime Vinaigrette:
  • juice of 2 large limes
  • 2 Tbsp honey
  • ⅓ C white balsamic vinegar
  • ¼ C good quality olive
Instructions
For the Honey Lime Vinaigrette:
  1. 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
For the Quinoa Salad:
  1. 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.