merrifood

Warm quinoa veggie salad

Posted by merrifood on April 4, 2013 · 1 Comment 

As I’ve said before, I’m always looking for new variations on quinoa dishes because even though quinoa with various roasted vegetables is great, sometimes it’s nice to change it up a bit.  I loved those quinoa meatballs but they lacked a real hit of veggies, so when I stumbled on this recipe via my usual tastespotting browsing I decided to give it a try.  It’s not the typical veggies I would use and it uses stir frying to cook them instead of the oven.  As long as you make sure not to overcook them, the result is a crisp and colourful dish with great additional texture from the corn and beans.  It’s a great casual dinner and leftovers are excellent for lunch either reheated or cold!

Warm quinoa veggie salad (adapted from Jilly Inspired)

• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 2 medium-large zucchini, diced
• 2-3 garlic cloves, minced, or 2 tsp of garlic from a jar
• A handful of freshly chopped basil (this would be great but I didn’t have it)I used Thai basil.
• 1 cup of fresh (preferable) or frozen corn, defrosted
• 1 lemon, zested
• 1 can of cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 cup quinoa, cooked
• Sea salt and pepper to taste

Rinse the quinoa and cook it (typically a 3 to 1 water to quinoa ratio, but a lot of the time I add more water as it’s simmering).  If you want extra flavour, you can add a cup of vegetable broth in place of one of the cups of water. 

Spray a pan with non-stick spray and put in the garlic first.  Drop in all the veggies (peppers and zucchini) at approximately the same time (I put in the zucchini first but only by about a minute) and stir over medium-high heat.  Add a pinch of salt and mix around for a few minutes.  You definitely don’t want to overcook them – they should still have some bite and be a bit crisp.  Add the lemon zest, cannellini beans, corn, and another pinch of salt. Warm everything through.

Toss the vegetable and bean mixture with the cooked quinoa and add in some olive oil (if it has a hint of lime or lemon even better) and the juice from the lemon you zested.  Finish with freshly chopped basil for a nice touch.  This tastes great reheated as well!

Zucchini in the pot

All the vegetables and corn being mixed up

Add quinoa for instant filling meal

I definitely enjoyed this variation on my typical quinoa and roasted vegetables dinner/lunch.  I like the addition of the   beans which actually add great texture to the dish, and the citrus zest is always nice.  It’s a great quinoa dish to add to your repertoire if you’re into that sort of thing!