Quinoa and Chickpea Salad With Tomato Vinaigrette

From March 2011 issue of Canadian Living magazine. It's delicious and hard to mess up. I've used brown rice instead of quinoa and it works. I do not normally eat green beans but in this I do. I can not find strained tomatoes so I use canned crushed tomatoes.

• Ready In: 35 mins
• Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 1  cup quinoa, rinsed
• 2  cups green beans, trimmed and chopped
• 1 (540 ml) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1  sweet red pepper, diced
• 1  cup feta cheese, crumbled

• tomato vinaigrette

• 1⁄3 cup tomatoes, bottled strained (passata)
• 3  tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 3  tablespoons olive oil
• 3  tablespoons liquid honey
• 1⁄2 teaspoon  dried Italian herb seasoning
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄4 teaspoon pepper
• 1  pinch cayenne pepper

Directions

1. In a saucepan, bring quinoa and 2 cups of water to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 12 minutes. Fluff with a fork and let cool.
2. Meanwhile, in a saucepan of boiling salted water, blanch the green beans until tender-crisp, about 3 minutes. Drain then refresh in a bowl of ice water. Drain and transfer to a large bowl.
3. Stir in cooled quinoa, chickpeas, red pepper and feta cheese.
4. Tomato Vinaigrette: Whisk ingredients together. Pour over quinoa mixture and stir to coat.