Sweet Potato and Quinoa Salad

Submitted by AllergyGirl

"This salad was a pleasant surprise, during an experimenting with more earth-friendly forms of protein. It's free of most allergens, very tasty, good for you, and easy!"

 

• Ready In: 30mins
• Ingredients: 7
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• 2 1⁄2 cups quinoa
• 1 sweet potato
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1⁄4 cup shallot, diced
• 1⁄4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1⁄4 cup olive oil
• 2 tablespoons chives

directions

1. Cook the quinoa according to the package directions (or find directions online, if you bought in bulk).
2. Peel and chop the sweet potato, and boil until soft. If a fork goes through it easily, it's done.
3. Mix everything together and enjoy!

Reviews

[noway]

This was our first time ever trying quinoa and we loved the nutty flavor! The balsamic dressing and red pepper were the stars of this dish but did not mask the nuttiness of the quinoa. We couldn't really taste the sweet potato (we used a white sweet potato). I made the recipe as stated, except that I subbed 1/2 tsp garlic powder instead of the shallot because I didn't have any on hand. If I were to make with shallot, 1/4 cup would be way too much for my tastes, especially if used raw as the directions imply. One suggestion: It would be helpful to have detailed directions on how to cook the quinoa included with the recipe for people that aren't familiar with it, like I wasn't. I bought mine in bulk and my research on this site gave different answers on how to prepare. I ultimately settled for toasting the quinoa first using recipe #16399 and then cooking using recipe #235534. Using this recipe for cooking made the quinoa very mushy, almost the consistency of cream of wheat. I'm guessing that it is supposed to be firmer than that given some of the pictures I've seen, and next time I will try using less water (1.5 cups instead of 2 cups for 1 cup dry quinoa). Thanks for introducing us to this nutrition packed, super grain! Made for PAC Spring 2010.