Quinoa Salad

I'm being adventurous and trying something completely new.  I didn't know this, but "quinoa" is pronounced "keen-wah".  fyi.  Scott was quick to correct me, though I don't know where he learned it.  Usually I'm the one who constantly feels the need to share the trivial, useless knowledge.  I kind of wish I hadn't told a class full of children that it was "qwa-no-ah" months ago when we came across it in the Reading book.  (but then again, who puts that in a 4th grade reading book???)

But I've seen this all over the internet and I figured it was time to try it.  I took a recipe out of Rachael Ray's magazine and a recipe from Our Best Bites and kind of combined the two, using what I had on hand.

Then I had some chocolate for dessert.

Quinoa Vegetable Salad
1 cup of dry quinoa
2 cups of water (2 to 1, just like rice!)

3 T. fresh lemon juice
2 T. olive oil
1 t. salt
1 t. garlic powder
1/2 t. black pepper

1/2 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup red onion, chopped
1/2 cup chopped portbello mushrooms

*This is what I had.  Bell peppers, zucchini, mango, tomatoes, etc. would all be wonderful if you have them.  From what I read I can see that feta cheese is also popular with quinoa, but I'm not really a fan of feta.

-Put the two cups of water in a saucepan and when it boils, add the quinoa. (Now you can rinse it first and I would follow the steps on Our Best Bites if you want to go that route.  I tried to rinse it, realized I didn't have a fine mesh sieve, and I made quite the mess.  I'm going to buy a sieve now.)

-Let it simmer, covered, on low for about 12 minutes, or whenever the liquid is all absorbed, just like rice. 

-Take off the heat and toss in the vegetables and seasonings.  Add more or less to suit your taste.  It tastes best after it sits for a few minutes to absorb the flavors.



(yeah, I wish I had a picture too.  i'm really pretty lazy.)