Meatless Monday's - Greek Quinoa Salad

My family loves Quinoa and we eat it quite often as a replacement for brown rice or add it to recipes to get protein with our vegetarian meals. The link has lots of good nutritial information on Quinoa. Here is one of our favorites that is pretty regular on our meal rotation.

Greek Quinoa Salad

It it really simple to make and a dinner I can easily throw together on a busy family night. Here's what you do:

• 1 box of Quinoa (we get it at Trader Joe's - any color is fine, but my kids only eat the grain colored one, I think the black and red was one step too far)
• 1 box of CousCous (Trader Joe's)
• 1 diced cucumber
• black olives or kalamata olives
• 1/4 of a red onion - diced
• cherry tomatoes cut in half
• a tub of crumbled goat cheese or feta (vegan you can omit the cheese)
• Dressing

Make the Quinoa and CousCous according the package directions and let cool. After it is cooked, I mix them together in a bowl to cool and drizzle with a little olive oil so it doesn't turn into a big clump. While cooling, chop up all your veggies and then add to the Quinoa and CousCous. Add dressing (see below) and mix together. If you have time, stick it in the fridge and let it all marinate together for an hour or two. If you don't have time, put your cheese on it and serve it up! I always add the cheese right before I serve. 

This is great to serve with cut up fruit and flat bread!

Same recipe, just added some left-over chicken from a roasted chicken, I have also added grilled tofu and fake chicken, but usually we eat it just as I posted above, no chicken or tofu.

Dressing:

I usually make my own. It's easier than you think if haven't done it before. 

• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Vinegar (white wine, coconut, or red wine all work great for this)
• salt and pepper
• fresh and dried herbs
• garlic

The classic ratio for dressing is 3:1, oil:vinegar. I have a little canning jar and pour my oil and vinegar into the jar, add a pinch of salt, a little pepper and some herbs, pick your favorite (oregano, basil, thyme, etc) and a little crushed garlic or garlic powder. Shake it up really good and pour it over the salad.

Comments

[Cat Webb]

loved this salad! you guys totally Rock,love u, =^..^=