Simple Food, Fancy Napkins

Fancy Naps’ Quinoa Salad

I think I am going to start holding contests where people can name my recipes, because this is outrageous.. Fancy Naps’ Quinoa Salad, I mean, really!?

Anyway, recently we ate 1/2 pound burgers and deep fried some potatoes so the next night was obviously gonna be salad night. One thing led to the next and I pumped out this recipe. I didn’t write anything down.. so the next day, I came home for lunch and duplicated it on my break and actually wrote the recipe down for you. The best part is, this was ready to go in less than 30 minutes. Prep your veg while your quinoa cooks and you’re good to go! If you’re reading this ahead of time and prefer not to have warm quinoa, make your quinoa a day or so ahead so it’s cool and ready to go.

I would also like to take this time to remind you to rinse your quinoa. Up until I started testing this recipe, I have never rinsed my quinoa. Solely because I am too lazy. Rinse your quinoa, folks.

Speaking of quinoa, if you toss the quinoa on top of everything without cooling for a few minutes – that’s fine!! This tastes good cold as leftovers too.

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Enjoy!

The Fancy Naps' Quinoa Salad

Toss this together in less than 30 minutes. Feeds 3 as a meal or a few more as a side

Ingredients

Salad

  • 1 cup quinoa uncooked
  • 1 1/2 cups water
  • 8 grape tomatoes quartered OR 1 1/2 cups chopped tomato (cherry toms work too, honestly, just use what you've got on hand)
  • 1/2 cup finely diced red onion
  • 1/2 avocado diced seasoned with salt and pepper
  • 1 cup shredded mozzarella
  • 2 cups shredded lettuce I recommend you do NOT use lettuce if you will be serving this with warm quinoa. When I do use lettuce, I use Romaine or iceberg
  • 2 tsp lime juice about 1/4 lime
  • salt and pepper to taste

Dressing

  • 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Instructions

  • Rinse your quinoa!
  • Fill a medium sauce pan with 1 1/2 cups water, add quinoa and a pinch of salt and bring to a boil with lid on
  • Once boiling, reduce heat and simmer the quinoa for about 20 minutes. (Quinoa can be made ahead of time as well so it is cool)
  • Meanwhile, prep your veggies...
  • In a medium sized mixing bowl, add red onion, tomato, lettuce and mozzarella
  • Season with some salt and pepper, toss
  • Drizzle lime juice over mixture, toss
  • After about 20 minutes, and the water is gone from the quinoa, you can either let it cool a little bit, completely or not at all. Add it to the mixing bowl and give everything a good stir
  • Pour olive oil and vinegar over the salad and toss really well to incorporate
  • Season with a little salt and pepper, to taste
  • Serve with diced avocado


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