Quinoa Salad with Lime and Fresh Mint...

Quinoa (pronounced keen-wa) has become very familiar in the last twenty years. This important grain has ancient origins, dating back over five thousand years to the mighty Inca civilization of South America. Quinoa was so important to the inca culture they referred to it as the Mother Grain...is is the superfood of the future because of the nutritional qualities...Quinoa contains more high quality protein that any other grain and is thought of as one of the best sources of vegetable proteins. It contains no gluten and is light, tasty and easy to digest. It is much less filling than other grains and has a nutty texture and flavor...when it was cooking it smelled like beans cooking...it can be used anywhere you would use rice...I cooked mine in the rice cooker, using the same recipe as rice...it came out fluffy and soft. I had a salad once similar to this in Polson, Montana at a big whole foods market...if you ever go to Polson, go there, they have the best deli!

Quinoa Salad Recipe with Lime and Fresh Mint

1 cup dry quinoa
2 tablespoons fruity extra virgin olive oil
Juice from 2 limes
2-3 fresh mint sprigs, leaves removed and chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves or parsley, or both
Sea salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste
1 small roma tomato seeded and cut in a small dice
2 tablespoons diced red onion- or use 2 chopped scallions
1 garlic clove, minced

Cook the quinoa as you would raw rice: in 2 and 1/4 to 2 1/2 cups fresh salted water, covered, until all of the water is absorbed.I use my rice cooker to do this. The quick turns out fluffy, tender and perfect. Let cool.Scoop the cooked quick into a bowl and add the rest of the ingredients, tossing lightly with a fork until combined.Taste test and adjust seasonings.
Cover and chill- the longer, the better. In fact, I think this salad tastes better the second day- so plan ahead and make it the day before.
Makes 4-6 servings.

get the few indgredients together...

this is the cooked, cooled Quinoa....looks like rice....

add all the ingredients...and mix it all together....add salt and pepper to taste...

This is a great salad...full of flavor bursts...you need to use very little salt, the lime does a good job at flavoring. The flavors of this salad are very adult...I laugh to think of what my children would have done, had I served it to them. So I would stick to serving this to adults. It would be great with Satay... chicken skewers, that have been barbecued and served with a peanut sauce.

Cheers to Happy   !!