Monday, May 17, 2010

Quinoa and Tomato Salad

I've been wanting to jump on the quinoa bandwagon for a while, and finally did so over the weekend.  This salad is the result.


According to wikipedia, quinoa is actually a seed, not a grain; and is closely related to the tumbleweed.  When I told my daughter our salad was made out of tumbleweeds, she quickly told me that you just can't eat those.  She may be right, if tumbleweed tastes like quinoa.  Which is...bland.  So I suppose it's a good base for any dish you want to make as it should take on the flavor of whatever is going on around it.



Here are the grains after they are cooked.  Or "dots" as the girl called them.


As for this salad, it wasn't bad.  Definitely had potential.  It needed a little "oomph", a little something.  I'm just not sure what.  I substituted basil for the chives it calls for to salvage what I could from my little dying basil plant.

Here is the recipe from Weight Watchers.

Ingredients


1 cup(s) uncooked quinoa   

2 cup(s) grape tomatoes, or cherry tomatoes, red and/or yellow*   
1 Tbsp olive oil   
1 Tbsp white wine vinegar, or more to taste   
1/2 tsp table salt, or more to taste   
1/4 tsp black pepper, or more to taste   

2 Tbsp chives, fresh, minced   

Instructions

  • Put quinoa in a fine-mesh sieve or fine strainer. Place under cold running water until water runs clear (this eliminates the bitter taste contained in quinoa's coating); drain well. (Or you can buy certain brands of quinoa that are pre-rinsed.)
  • Place rinsed quinoa in a medium saucepan and cover with 2 cups of cold water; bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer until the grains are translucent and the germ has come out of each grain, about 15 minutes. Cover and remove from heat; let sit for 5 minutes.
  • Spoon quinoa into a large bowl and set aside to cool. Meanwhile, finely chop tomatoes, reserving 2 tablespoons of the tomato juice; set tomatoes aside.
  • In a cup, combine tomato juice, oil, vinegar, salt, pepper and chives; stir well.
  • When quinoa is at room temperature, stir in chopped tomatoes; add tomato vinaigrette and toss again. Yields about 1 1/4 cups per serving.

22 comments:

pam said...

I pretty much treat quinoa like a pasta, it's only as good as the sauce (or dressing) that you put on it.

Erica said...

A little lemon juice and some Parmesan would kick that up a notch! Looks yummy to me :)

Try the grilled pizza! You will not be let down- mmm

Juliana said...

Love quinoa and love the idea of salad...simple and delicious!

Reeni said...

I've been meaning to try quinoa too! I like the flavors in this! I probably would of added some sauteed garlic and onion - cause I do that to just about everything I make!

La Bella Cooks said...

Quinoa is pretty versatile and I love the idea of this salad. It looks so yummy even though I just HAD to read that tumbleweed part. Too funny! I would definitely have to keep my kids from finding out though. lol

Mara Campbell said...

Looks good!! I like quinoa, we use it alot instead of rice.

Katrina said...

I've heard you can cook the quinoa in stock/broth, too.
I actually like it plain though and/or kicked up in a salad like this.

Kim said...

I've only tried quinoa once, as a breakfast cereal, with maple syrup. I would like to try it in a savory recipe like this.

tinyskillet said...

That's so funny I made quinoa salad for my lunch today. I love it that way!

The JR said...

I've got some in my pantry. Used it once and forgot about it. I guess I really didn't like it all that much or I would have used it up........

Ingrid_3Bs said...

Hmm, I'm not sure about it or couscous.
~ingrid

btw, made the cake.

Pam said...

I usually cook my quinoa in chicken stock to give it extra flavor. I think your salad looks great.

Evolving Mommy Catherine said...

Quinoa doesn't have a lot of flavor but I don't think white rice does either and like both. We've been eating it more lately and I even made a loaf of Quinoa bread today.

Darius T. Williams said...

Yup - pretty much with everyone else...it's only as good as the dressing. But yours looks good.

The Blonde Duck said...

I've been curious about quinoa for awhile.

Lori said...

One of my favorie salads is tabouleh - so I imagine I would love this.

rosasdolcevita said...

Lemon would do the trick and it would go really well with the fresh green chives and tomatoes. But I would remove the the vinegar if lemon juice is being added. Hope this helps. :-)

Deborah said...

I love the colors of this. This could be a great recipe to just play around with.

Living the Scream said...

I have never heard of Quinoa very interesting. I really love the food pictures on your blog especially the one in the header on the corner the multicolored cookie thing looks so cool! I am sure that is not the technical name for it lol :)

Krista said...

I haven't tried quinoa either. I had no idea that it came from the tumbling, tumbling, tumbleweed. Nice bit o' trivia. : )

This salad looks completely refreshing and lovely. I'd have to play with it a bit too. Hey, at least you tried!

jessica said...

Looks awesome!

Karen said...

I still haven't jumped on that bandwagon yet, even though I have a bag of quinoa in my pantry. For some reason, the "dots" remind me of fish eggs. LOL