Eat Your Greens Quinoa Salad

Another quinoa salad?  You must be kidding?  No I’m not kidding.  It’s that good.  I promise not to bore you with the benefits of quinoa again.  Just trust me on this one.  When the weather gets hot you will crave this Eat Your Greens Quinoa Salad.  It is full of healthy greens and fresh sautéed zucchini.  Those little quinoa soak up the fresh lemon vinaigrette and melt in your mouth.  It screams summertime.

I’ve been at the beach this week with my parents and I made a big batch at the beginning of the week.  We’ve eaten it on the beach almost everyday and it’s cool and refreshing.  It’s been good to keep lunch light since we’ve eaten lots of ice cream and a few extra glasses of wine! Feel free to substitute different greens like spinach or kale.

It’s great for a beach vacation because it doesn’t require a lot of pantry ingredients.  We showed up to a kitchen with only salt and pepper – nothing else.  Not even olive oil.  So these ingredients were easy to grab at the grocery store and put together quickly. I think sautéing the zucchini imparts a lot of flavor so I wouldn’t skip that step.

Did I mention that I miss my kitchen?  I miss my orange Le Crueset dutch oven and my collection of wooden spoons.  I miss my Vitamix and my spice cabinet.  It’s tough working in a bare bones kitchen but it’s been a fun challenge.  We have kept our meals simple utilizing the grill and marinating chicken and skirt steak.

Give this salad a try and you may never go back to a plain green salad.

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Eat Your Greens Quinoa

A delicious, gluten free quinoa salad with arugula, zucchini, feta and cucumbers.

Course Salad

Cuisine American

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

Servings 6

Author Karen Kelly

Ingredients

• 1 cup quinoa I use a rice cooker, rinsed and cooked
• 1 medium zucchini quartered and diced
• 1/2 English cucumber diced small
• 1 5 oz . package of baby arugula chopped
• 4 oz . feta cheese
• 1/2 cup smoked almonds chopped
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• juice and zest of 2 lemons
• salt and pepper to taste
• olive oil

Instructions

1. In a medium pan saute diced zucchini in 2 tbsp olive oil for 6-9 minutes until browned. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Mix quinoa with zucchini, cucumber, arugula, feta and almonds.
3. In a small jar add the olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest and salt and pepper. Shake well.
4. Pour over quinoa and serve. Can be served cold or at room temperature.

Adapted from a recipe by Rachel Ray

Serve this with Pineapple Grilled Chicken Skewers or Herbed Skirt Steak.

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