Veg Head: asian quinoa salad recipe

Hey there! I hope everyone is having a great Sunday so far.  I’ve been busy busy today hiking, grocery shopping and making nummy food.  Yesterday was a pretty busy day too, getting yard work done and having date night with Joe.  We went to a really great restaurant last night and had tapas and craft beer.  It was so great that I forgot the name of it.  Yea, gotta love my short attention span sometimes.  Seriously though, I do love productive weekends!

So, in an effort to work through some of my pins on Pinterest, I’ve decided that August will be Pinterest Project Month.  First up is this Asian Quinoa Salad via this blog.  VERY tasty and the instructions are actually spot on.  Have you ever tried a recipe from Pinterest before and found the ingredient measurements off or the cooking time a joke? Seems like more often than not, I’m adjusting something that isn’t quite right off the internet.

The only caveat of this recipe is there is a lot of chopping going on, which is pretty time consuming unless your some kind of Iron Chef (I’m totally not). But in the end I think it was worth it because we had leftovers for a few days afterward.  I am not a huge fan of quinoa, but if you check out my veg head board on Pinterest, you’ll see I’ve collected a LOT of recipes for it.  Because quinoa is a complete protein from a non-meat source, I’m really trying to like it! With recipes like these, though, I can become a paint-your-face-team-colors-and-sit-in-the-snow-cheering kind of quinoa fan.  It’s THAT good!  Alright, without any more babbling from me, here’s my version of the recipe:

asian quinoa salad

 

Salad Ingredients

• 1 Cup quinoa
• 2 Cups water
• salt to taste
• 1 Cup chopped red cabbage
• 1 chopped yellow italian squash
• 1 chopped red bell pepper
• 1/2 Cup chopped carrots
• 1 diced cucumber
• sliced avocado (you’ll want one that is on the firm side but still ripe)

Dressing Ingredients

• 1/4 Cup soy sauce
• 1 TBSP sesame oil
• 1 TBSP rice vinegar (AKA rice wine vinegar)
• 2 TBSP chopped green onion
• 1/4 Cup chopped cilantro
• 1 TBSP sesame seeds
• 1/4 tsp grated ginger
• 1/4 tsp chili powder
• salt and pepper to taste

Here’s the plan

1. Bring quinoa to a boil in the 2 Cups water with salt to taste.  Cover and simmer on low for 15 minutes.  Remove from heat.
2. While the quinoa is cooking, combine the cabbage, squash, pepper, carrots and cucumber in a large bowl, set aside.
3. In a small bowl, combine the dressing ingredients.
4. Add the quinoa to the veggies, cover with dressing and stir to combine.
5. Top each serving with avocado.  *tastes best served slightly warm or at room temperature*

I want to thank www.twopeasandtheirpod.com for the “Pinspiration!” And please let me know what you think of the salad!

PS: Here are some of the other Pinterest projects from this month: Halloween Paper Flowers, Watercolor with Glue and Salt, Halloween Topiary. Enjoy!