Power Quinoa Salad

Healthy but Tasty Quinoa Salad

Oh, Quinoa... how I love your complete protein goodness. I became quinoa crazy the other day. I made such a large batch that I've been eating this stuff for 3 days. Mmmmmm. Anyway, after a week of eating not-so-good food, I decided to load up a salad with nutrients. But I wasn't finished there. I decided to add an antioxidant as well... green tea. I actually cooked the quinoa in green tea. Strange, you say? It would be too bitter, you say? None of the above, my friends. It turned out beautifully. The tea added a unique and subtle flavour to the quinoa that livened it up a bit. I also went fibre and protein crazy with seeds. This salad is packed with hemp hearts, chia seeds and sunflower seeds. The bottom line, this is a healthy but very tasty meal. Without further ado... the recipe.  
Serves 4 - 6 people.

Ingredients

1 cup white quinoa (mix 1/2 cup of white and 1/2 cup red for a more nutty flavour)

2 cups water

2 bags of quality organic green tea

1 tbsp chia seeds

2 tbsp shelled hemp seeds

2 tbsp hulled sunflower seeds

1/3 tsp dried dillweed

2 tsp dried parsley

1/4 cup apple-cider vinegar

3 tbsp lemon juice

1 large carrot

100g sunchokes (Jerusalem artichoke) (if unavailable, use 1 more carrot or 1 stick celery)

3-4 medjool dates

1 small red bell-pepper

1/2 small red onion

Salt and Pepper

1/4 tsp sugar

Directions


1) Boil some water in a tea kettle. Add 1 cup of boiling water to a medium saucepan and steep the tea bags in it for 5 minutes. Remove the tea-bags.

2) Add one cup of cold water, quinoa, sugar and 1 tsp salt to the pot. Turn stove to high and bring to a boil. Once boiling, turn stove to low, lid the pot and let cook for 15 minutes. Let sit 5 minutes after cooking and then fluff the quinoa with a fork. Once quinoa has cooled, transfer to a mixing bowl.

3) Cut carrot, (peeled) sunchoke, (pitted) medjool dates, red onion and red pepper into small cubes. Add to mixing bowl.

4) Add the remaining ingredients to the bowl and stir the ingredients together. Add salt and pepper to taste. If you feel like it needs more of a kick, add 1-2 more tablespoons of vinegar.

5) Enjoy!!


So, there you have it. My Power Quinoa Salad recipe loaded with fibre, protein, essential minerals and antioxidants. The best part? No oil. In fact, I don't think anything in this salad is necessarily unhealthy (just don't use too much salt). Give it a try and send some feedback my way. 


Cheers!!

Avacado, Date and Sun Dried Tomato Salad w/ Grapefruit Balsamic Reduction

Well folks, it's salad time again. I have a bit of a sweet tooth so I enjoy sweet bits in my salad. I was having a late-night refrigerator raid last night when I stumbled upon some medjool dates that I completely forgot that I had. Happiness set in quite rapidly when I decided to create a salad today with those delicious little morsels of sweet-tooth heaven. For the past week I've had the hankering to create a funky balsamic reduction as well. So I did... and now I present it to you. I wanted to incorporate the full spectrum of tastes in this dish. There are sweet, bitter, sour, salty and savoury elements to this salad. I hope you enjoy it. Serves 2-3 people.

Ingredients

Balsamic Reduction:

1 cup Balsamic Vinegar of Modena

1 cup juice of ruby red grapefruit (freshly squeezed)

1 tablespoon of sugar (don't like sweet reductions? then don't add sugar)

Salad:

1 head of Green or Red leaf lettuce (Romaine would work as well)

1 ripe avacado

6-7 strips of sun dried tomato

2 medjool dates

salt and pepper

2 tsp lemon juice

2 tsp olive oil

Directions

Balsamic Reduction:

1) Put balsamic vinegar, grapefruit juice, and sugar in a medium saucepan. Whisk ingredients together and bring to a boil. Immediately turn to medium heat and whisk frequently. (Warning: do not put your head over the pot to inhale the vinegary fumes, I learned the hard way. Made my eyes bulge and start watering).

2) Reduce the mixture by about 75% or until it coats the back of a spoon like a light syrup. Take off heat, transfer to bowl, let cool to room temperature and then refrigerate until needed.

Salad:

1) If using dry sun-dried tomatoes, reconstitute them by soaking them in a bowl with warm water for 20-30 minutes before salad preparation. If using jarred sun-dried tomatoes in oil or brine, simply rinse the pieces.
 
2) Pit and cut up the avocado into 1/8 inch cubes and put into bowl. Pit and cut up the medjool dates into thin slices and put into bowl. Finely chop the pieces of sun-dried tomatoes and put into bowl. Add 1 tsp of lemon juice and a pinch of salt and mix well. Set aside.

3) Using a salad spinner, tear lettuce into bite size pieces, rinse and spin dry (if you don't dry the lettuce, the dressing will not stick to it). Put into bowl.

4) In another small bowl, whisk together olive oil and 3 tablespoons of the balsamic reduction. Pour over the salad, season with salt and pepper, and toss.Try a piece, if it's not flavoured enough, drizzle on more balsamic reduction and toss again. Plate the dressed lettuce.

5) After another quick mix of the avocado mixture, top the lettuce with it. If you'd like, drizzle a small amount of the reduction over top of the whole thing.

6) Enjoy!!



So, there you have it. My avocado, date and sun-dried tomato salad. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the medjool dates tasted a bit like candied pecans. I personally don't care much for the crunchy pecans in salads but I do like the flavour so this worked beautifully. I hope somebody who reads this will try to make it and give me some feedback. I liked it but I felt as if there could have been 1 more element added that would have made it a bit more well-rounded. If someone does try it out, please let me know your thoughts. 

Cheers!!