Market Quinoa Salad (Vegan or Paleo)

The best thing about this salad is that you can use whatever you’ve got on hand. That’s what I do. I make this every week or two and it’s constantly changing. Sam and I will pack this for lunch a few days each week. Here’s the essentials:

Quinoa

Roasted veggeis or potatoes: yams, any hard squash, beets, cauliflower, broccoli.

Fresh veggies and fruit: onions, shredded carrots, diced peppers, snap peas, apples, pears oranges, dried cranberries, spinach, rubbed kale, celery, whatever.

Nuts or Seeds: pumpkin seeds, slivered almonds, walnuts, pecans, hemp seeds, sunflower seeds.

Salt, Pepper, Olive Oil & Vinegar or Citrus

Protein: vegan or not, tempeh, tofu, chickpeas, smoked salmon, grilled chicken.

Bonus: fresh herbs

If you’re paleo and against quinoa, I suggest you come to the dark side:

http://primalcompetitor.wordpress.com/2012/12/08/so-for-realsiesis-quinoa-paleo/

Directions:

1. Rinse and cook your quinoa

2. Chop and roast your veggies and protein

3. Chop and dice the rest

4. Mix and drizzle with olive oil, vinegar, salt & pepper.

This Week’s Market Quinoa Salad

Ingredients

½ C dry quinoa

1 package of organic tofu

1 package of organic tempeh (I prefer all tempeh, but only had 1 package in the fridge, so subbed in some stray tofu)

½ head cauliflower

1 organic yam

¼ C diced red onion

2 steamed chopped beets

1 chopped bell pepper

1 small chopped apple

Handful snap peas

Handful of pumpkin seeds

Handful finely chopped parsley

Olive oil

Balsamic vinegar

Salt & pepper

½ lime

1. Rinse your quinoa for 10-15 seconds.

2.  Cook quinoa- Bring ½ C quinoa & 1 C water to a boil, lower to simmer and cook covered for 15 min. Fluff with a fork.

3. Chop and roast (400) yam, cauliflower, tempeh and tofu.

Toss with melted coconut oil, salt & pepper on a baking sheet.

Bake at 400 for 20-35 minutes, stirring 1-2 times.

(My tray was loaded so it took more like 35 minutes, often with less stuff it only takes 20 min.)  

                          Before                                    After

4. Chop and dice the rest of your ingredients.

5.  Let things cool a little (I’m impatient and usually toss things in the freezer for 5 min.)

6. Mix, squeeze lime over the top, drizzle with olive oil, vinegar and more salt and pepper, lots of pepper. Taste along the way.

If you try this with different combinations of ingredients and it turns out great, leave a comment and let us know!