Quinoa Salad with Beans and Veggies

Yesterday we had a birthday party for my oldest child. While my heart's desire would be to serve a great big spread of delicious plant based foods, I am afraid that most people would have left hungry. Instead, I bought a bunch of hot dogs, made fresh at our local highly respected butcher shop, and served those. Knowing this wouldn't be a meal I would eat, and that I would be extremely hungry from slaving over the hot BBQ grill all afternoon, I decided to whip up this little salad. While our friends are mostly carnivores, everyone is intrigued by the healthy foods that I prepare and always look forward to sampling what I make. After sampling, they all served up a heaping pile of this on their plates and truly enjoyed! The hot dogs turned out to be a side dish for the adults. My hubby ate some leftovers for breakfast and lunch, and I polished them off today. I wish there was more leftover!

 

 

OK, so this recipe will serve as a guide for you to use foods that you might have on hand. I didn't work the farmer's market Saturday so I had to make do with a variety of vegetable "ends" I had in my fridge. The original plan was also to use black beans, but when I looked into the pantry, I found a bag of chickpeas, or garbanzos, instead. This shows that what you have on hand will suffice in this recipe, as long as you have some sort of beans and some quinoa.

 

**On a little side note here, quinoa is an exceptionally nutritious food that is a perfect protein. I could go into all the amazing benefits and information on quinoa, but there is a great article here where you can read all about it.

 

You may recognize some similarities between this recipe and one I previously shared called Marinated Chickpea Salad. I try to provide you with recipes that are versatile and can be served in different ways, creating new recipes along the way.

 

I started working on this on Saturday night. That was totally my choice, and an option for you, as well, but there are short cuts that I will share with you to make it quick to prepare. The preparations I made were to soak my dried chickpeas and quinoa in glass bowls overnight. This makes cooking times the next morning a little shorter and increases the digestibility and nutrition of the food. You can read about sprouting your beans and grains here. I find that if you don't at least give quinoa a good rinsing, it will taste a little bitter. Soaking and then rinsing it solved that issue for me.

 

Quinoa Salad with Beans and Veggies

 

1/2 lb chickpeas, soaked, drained and rinsed, and cooked (crock pot, stove top, or pressure cooker)

     (alternately, you can use 2 cans of chickpeas, drained and rinsed)

1 1/2 c quinoa (dry) cooked according to package directions

1/4 red onion, diced

1 red pepper, diced

2 small cucumbers, diced (or use 1 larger one)

3/4 c carrot shreds (one convenient item I purchase) or 2 carrots finely chopped

1 lb frozen sweet corn (add it frozen and it will keep your dish cool till serving time!)

handful cilantro, chopped

 

for the dressing:

1/2 c apple cider vinegar

3 t maple syrup

2 t brown mustard

1 t garlic paste or very finely minced garlic

salt and pepper to taste

1 T olive oil, omit if you are oil free

 

Combine dressing ingredients in a large bowl. Add chickpeas to dressing and let it sit while you prepare everything else. In another large bowl, toss together quinoa and all of your vegetables.* Add chickpeas in dressing to quinoa veggie mixture and gently stir to combine.

 

** Melanie note - you can make many different substitutions. For instance, you can sub red or black beans for the garbanzos. You can add different veggies such as cherry tomatoes, zucchini, frozen peas, celery, cauliflower, green or other color peppers, you can add jalapenos for heat. You can sub parsley for the cilantro. You can sub part of the apple cider vinegar with a little lemon or lime juice, sub the maple syrup with honey or agave. Green onions instead of red ones, the list goes on.

 

As always, have fun, make it yours, and enjoy!