Mexican Quinoa Salad

Prose's Note:

From The Gluten-Free Vegan by Susan O'Brien. She suggests adding avocados and roasted corn. What I did was scooped it over pitted avocado halves, which was lovely.

• Total Time: 30 mins
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 cup quinoa
• 1/2 red bell peppers or 1/2 yellow bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1 small jalapeno, seeded and diced finely (optional ( leave it out if you do not like spicy food, add more or include some of the seeds if you )
• 1 small red onions or 2 green onions, chopped fine
• 2 roma tomatoes, chopped or 6 grape tomatoes, halved
• 1 (15 ounce) can pinto beans (or other beans, I prefer black beans)
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
• 1/2 cup salsa (fresh or homemade is best)
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 lime, juice of
• fresh ground black pepper
• sea salt

Directions:

1. Heat the water to boiling in a 2-quart saucepan and add the quinoa. Lower the heat to medium-low and cover. Cook until the liquid is absorbed, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and cool.
2. When the quinoa has cooled, add the remaining ingredients. Taste and adjust the seasonings if necessary. You can serve it right away, but it's better to let the flavors marry in the refrigerator for a few hours.

Reviews

[DancingPanda]

We bought this cookbook a couple of weeks ago and this is the 3rd recipe I have made. It is outstanding!! Tastes like a little bit of summer in a bowl. I used black bean as that is what I prefer and added frozen corn. Also increased the salsa to about 1 cup and used the entire red pepper. Plan on having this for lunch this week... and quite excited about it.

[Dr. Jenny]

We really enjoyed this quinoa salad! It had lots of great flavors. I served it as a side to turkey enchiladas. I added a diced avocado, which was really nice and used black beans as suggested. I would definitely make this again. Thanks!