Sunday, October 16, 2011

Quinoa Salsa Salad....three ingredients.


I love Trader Joe's. Yesterday, Pete and I made our weekly grocery store rounds and just had to stop in to get some of their tortillas. Have you seen them? They are called "hand made" tortillas and I'm guessing they are as close to homemade as you can get from store bought. Just a guess, though, since I've never made them.


My new favorite tortillas....

 At any rate, the first thing we usually do when we get to Trader Joe's is to hustle on to the back of the store where they are giving out product samples. Yesterday's sample was a quinoa salad. I was disappointed, at first--healthy food? I did have a box of it at home that I had been reluctant to try. You know what? It's really good! They had it prepared with black beans, roasted corn and sun dried tomatoes. I was shoveling it in my mouth when another customer asked if they used a recipe or if it came made that way. It was a recipe, and a pretty darn easy one.


Ok--here it is: Prepare 1/2 package quinoa (about 1 cup) per package directions, stir in one package of Trader Joe's sun dried tomatoes and one container of Trader Joe's Black Bean & Roasted Corn Salsa. Finished. Period. The End. Oh--I did squeeze a little orange juice in it, just because I never leave well enough alone.


The quinoa only took about 15 minutes to cook



Quinoa is gluten-free, high in protein, cooks up fast, and doesn't have a heavy flavor so it pairs well with almost anything.


My sister and my niece were on their way over...I simply threw some biscuits in the oven and whipped up the quinoa. Lunch was ready when they got here.

The quinoa went over well. I served it warm for my sister (who even heats up her ice cream--she needs everything warm), but you can eat this cold or at room temperature, too. There weren't too many leftovers...for dinner I made myself a quinoa burrito with one of those handmade tortillas. :)




5 comments:

  1. my daughter has been bugging me to buy quinoa. Looks easy to bring for school lunch...won't need a fridge!

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  2. I've been making several quinoa recipes for a while now, and I just love it. I've used it for salads and mixed with pesto, but my favourite recipes are quinoa burgers (with vegetables and cheese) and quinoa croquettes. Just delicious and very healthy.

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  3. Laura--I was hesitant, but it is so easy and so tasty!

    Dajana--Ha-I have your quinoa croquettes saved on my Pinterest board! :)

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  4. As soon as Pete discovers that big bag at Costco, you will be having quinoa full time!
    I actually ate some before becoming gluten-free. Now I use it just like I used to use white rice.

    I love it!

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  5. Oh, my gosh, my mouth started watering just reading the recipe. I have the quinoa; now I just need to pick up the other two ingredients! YUM!

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