I’ve never done much cooking with quinoa, but I think it’s a fascinating food. If you haven’t tried it, I suggest you go pick some up and start experimenting. It’s sorta like rice and sorta like cous cous, but much more talented because it has protein. Which is really good for pesca- and vegetarians alike, because it’s tricky to get protein from places that aren’t super fatty [read: cheese].

So, the base for the following salad actually came from Brad’s mom. We were visiting for his birthday, and she made a really yummy side dish out of:

• cooked quinoa
• blanched green beans
• blanched broccoli
• raw red bell pepper
• raw green onion
• olive oil and balsamic vinegar
• salt and pepper

There may have been more to it, but it’s one of those things you can put your own influence on. Don’t like green beans? Use something else, or leave them out altogether.

She had a massive pile leftover, so we got sent home with most of it, which I was thrilled about. I piled a bunch of it on top of some mixed greens the next day for lunch. It was good, but definitely left me feeling like something was missing. It just wasn’t filling enough as a main meal; I was still hungry.

So the following day, I added goat cheese and a smidge more oil/vinegar.

and, voila!

so, i learned after this photo to take the pretty picture before mixing up salads

It’s not the prettiest salad, but it was definitely tasty. And filling. I will be experimenting with quinoa more in the future, particularly as a salad ingredient.

other ways i’ve had quinoa so far:

You can use quinoa anywhere you would normally use rice. I’ve used it in a teriyaki chicken bowl [before I gave up meat, obv.] and just on the side of a main dish, or mixed with cooked veggies. It has a unique nuttiness that plain white rice doesn’t have, similar to whole wheat pasta. And I prefer it to brown rice, because brown rice is so damn hard to cook properly.

so, what quinoa recipes do you have? share plz!

note: this is a vegan dish if you leave the cheese off, or substitute with your own soy cheese variety.