Red Quinoa Salad

The highlight of this week was a lovely dinner in Williamsport, PA at Ozzie and Mae's Hacienda for a belated birthday dinner with my friend Lori. We both had enchiladas and margaritas.
Also their chips and salsa were very tasty, I highly recommend it. After dinner, I had my first experience with Wegmans. I'm glad this store is not very accessible for me because I could do a LOT of damage. One of the things I found there was red quinoa. I haven't made a lot of quinoa but it does lend its self to salad.

 

How to cook quinoa (adapted from The Kitchn)
1c quinoa
2c liquid (chicken broth, water, etc)
olive oil
salt (optional)

First rinse quinoa in fine mess strainer until rinse water turns clear. Toast quinoa in a sauce pan with olive oil. Once the water has evaporated and the quinoa is toasted, add liquid. Bring to a boil, cover and turn down heat so it simmers. Let cook for 15 minutes. Turn off heat and keep covered for an additional 5 minutes. Fluff with fork and serve. 1 cup dry should yield about 3 cups cooked.

I used chicken bullion so I didn't add any salt. Now that I have this quinoa, I decided to make a cold salad. Other finds from Wegmans were marinated olives (at the olive bar!! seriously, I cannot go to this place that often...) and fresh mozzarella balls in individual single servings.

Quinoa Salad
3 cups cooked quinoa
1 pint cherry tomatoes
1 english cucumber
salt, pepper, italian seasoning
Italian salad dressing
1 cup marinated olives

While quinoa is cooling, halve tomatoes and chop cucumber. Put in bowl with salt, pepper, italian seasoning and 2T salad dressing, let marinate for 10 minutes. Combine with cooled quinoa. Add olives and an additional 2T dressing. Let sit in refrigerator overnight, adjust seasoning to taste.

For lunch today, I put the quinoa salad on top of mixed greens and topped with the mozzarella and some additional salad dressing. YUM! I also have some ripe avocados that would be good too on top. Nom nom nom.