Mediterranean Quinoa Salad
Roughly diced onions
The quinoa salad!
Roasted red peppers
Onions, spinach and garlic
Quinoa salad seems to be everywhere this season.
Recent issues of Bon Appétit and Food & Wine both feature quinoa salad recipes, and even our local magazine, The Washingtonian, can’t stop tweeting tasty recipes for the nutritionally-packed meal. (I hate to point this out, but it seems as though I was abreast of this trend a few months prior with my recipe for balsamic quinoa with sautéed spinach, tomatoes and garlic).
Freshly picked (from the garden!!!!)
After a lovely Sunday of soaking up some food literature by the pool (aka: catching up on a few months worth of magazines), I decided to make a quinoa salad for dinner. After all, I have a patio packed with fresh herbs (I don’t know what I am doing right, but the herbs are growing like crazy!) and quinoa is always in the pantry.
While not outside of my normal comfort zone (read: tomatoes, basil, white wine, some carbohydrate – what can I say, I am an Italian creature of habit), this salad is pretty amazing. Just because of timing, it was warm when we ate it last night, but trust me, it tastes great cold (like in lunch today and for dinner tonight) – A perfect recipe for one of those hot summer days when the last thing you want to eat is something warm.
Kitchen notes
So enjoy! I think this recipe is perfect as a main dish, or even as a side served up with some other summer cookout favorites!
Warning: This recipe makes a lot! We will be eating it for a week… But that was all part of my plan J
XOXO
R
In a large pot, bring two cups of quinoa and 4 cups of water to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until the quinoa is “puffed” and can be fluffed with a fork.
In the meantime, sauté one medium onion (roughly diced) in a tablespoon of olive oil on medium/medium high heat. After about five minutes, add roughly ¼ cup of white wine, 3 cloves of chopped garlic and a pinch of sea salt. Sauté until most of the wine is evaporated, but not entirely! Add in a package of fresh spinach and toss it in until all of the spinach is coated with the mixture and just barely wilted. Remove from heat and let cool.
Once the quinoa and the onion mixture are somewhat cool, combine the two in a big bowl. Add two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, 1 jar (12 ounces) of roasted red peppers (roughly chopped), two medium tomatoes (roughly chopped), and a BUNCH of torn fresh herbs (I used a handful of fresh basil, a handful of fresh thyme and a handful of fresh parsley).
Enjoy!
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