Kalyn's Kitchen Recipe for Quinoa Salad

I absolutely love reading Kalyn's blog!  She has so many great healthy recipes for practically everything.  The pictures are amazing and the food tastes even better.  If you haven't already checked out her blog, I strongly suggest that you follow it!  This recipe is taken directly from her blog.

Quinoa Salad with Avocado, Radishes, Cucumbers, and Cumin-Lime Vinaigrette

1 cup quinoa (rinsed well with cold water)
2 cups water
2 avocados, peeled and diced in 3/4 inch pieces
1 T fresh-squeezed lime juice (for tossing avocado)
1 cup chopped radishes (diced in 1/2 inch pieces)
1 large cucumber (peeled with thin green stripes remaining, seeds scraped out, and diced in 1/2 inch pieces)
1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions

Dressing:
3 T fresh-squeezed lime juice
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. Spike Seasoning (or use other all purpose seasoning blend of your choice)
1/2 tsp. Vege-Sal (or use 1/4 tsp. sea salt)
2 T extra virgin olive oil

Put 1 cup quinoa into a fine-mesh strainer (or put a paper towel inside your strainer if it's not fine enough to catch the quinoa seeds.) Rinse quinoa well with cold water. Bring 2 cups water to boil in a small saucepan, stir in quinoa, reduce heat to a simmer and cook until all the water is absorbed, about 15 minutes. (Keep an eye on it, because it may take more or less than 15 minutes, depending on exactly how high you have the heat. You can also cook the quinoa in a rice cooker if you prefer.)

Let the cooked quinoa cool for a few minutes, then place in salad bowl, fluff with a fork and cool until quinoa is room temperature, about 15-30 minutes.

While quinoa cooks and cools, peel avocado, dice into 3/4 inch pieces, place in small bowl, and toss with 1 T fresh-squeezed lime juice. Peel cucumbers, leaving thin green stripes, scrape out seeds, and dice cucumbers into 1/2 inch pieces. Cut off root and stem end of radishes, wash if needed, and dice into 1/2 inch pieces. Thinly slice enough green onions to make 1/4 cup.

In a small bowl, stir together the 3 T lime juice, ground cumin, Spike Seasoning, and Vege-Sal, then whisk in the olive oil.

When quinoa has cooled to room temperature in the salad bowl, stir in the diced radishes, diced cucumbers, and thinly-sliced green onions. (Don't add avocado until the end.) Stir in enough dressing to moisten salad to your liking (you may not need all the dressing.) Gently stir in diced avocado, season to taste with salt and fresh ground black pepper, and serve immediately.

 

This was okay when I kept it in the fridge overnight, but I don't think it would keep for longer than a day, and it was better freshly made.