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REFRESHING QUINOA SALAD

“I love this quinoa salad for summer. It’s so refreshing!”, said my 10-year old daughter. If she endorses it, you must try it! She is my pickier eater for sure. She usually begrudgingly eats anything with quinoa very very slowly and with much unwelcome commentary. It may be an exceptional salad or it may be that she truly missed the fresh organic raw vegetables lacking in the Taiwanese diet.

We just returned from over 5 weeks in Taiwan. While an amazing trip, there was surprisingly a complete lack of anything resembling salad in the cuisine. Don’t get me wrong, we loved the food and overindulged ourselves in deliciousness. We ate a lot of dian xin (dim sum), baozi (steamed bread dumplings), a ton of my favorite water spinach, shaved ice, and a lot of unidentifiable foods given the language barrier. We also really appreciated all the xiaochi, a diverse array of small eats available at an endless number of food stalls throughout Taipei. The lack of raw vegetables was glaringly obvious though, but fortunately for us, there was an abundance of fresh and local fruits like lychee, dragon fruit, mangoes. That being said, we loved the flavors of Taiwanese cuisine and even had the opportunity to learn how to cook some traditional dishes like xiaolongbao (soupy pork dumplings), veggie jiaozi (dumplings), three cups tofu (traditionally three cups chicken) and pineapple cake. I’m excited to incorporate some of these flavors into my whole foods cooking in the future (stay tuned!).

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REFRESHING QUINOA SALAD

Servings 6

Ingredients

  • 1 cup quinoa rinsed well
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 cucumber
  • 1 head broccoli cut into florets
  • 1 to mato diced
  • 1 small jalapeno seeded and finely minced
  • 1/4 cup cilantro
  • 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
  • 1 clove garlic crushed
  • 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 3/4 tsp sea salt
  • 1 avocado sliced

Instructions

  1. In a fine mesh strainer, rinse quinoa well. In a pot, put quinoa and water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer covered for 15 minutes. Allow the quinoa to cool. To expedite this process, you can spread the quinoa out on a baking tray.
  2. Cut cucumber into 1/2-inch dice. In the fine mesh strainer, put cucumber and approximately 1/2 tsp sea salt. Mix well and allow to sit so that the salt draws the water out of the cucumber.
  3. In a steamer basket or steam oven, steam broccoli for 5 minutes.
  4. In a mason jar, make dressing by combining jalapeno, cilantro, lime juice, garlic, olive oil and sea salt. Shake well.
  5. In a large bowl, combine cooked quinoa, cucumber, broccoli, tomatoes. Add dressing and toss well. Serve with sliced avocado on the side. Enjoy!

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