Quinoa Salad

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Quinoa Salad

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  • Show Name

So Much Picnic Food

  • Show Name

So Much Picnic Food

  • Show Date
July 24, 2021
  • Show Date
July 24, 2021
  • Cook

Dilip Barman

  • Cook

Dilip Barman

Description

Quinoa is a great food for picnics. An almost trivial option is to make a batch of quinoa cooked in vegan vegetable broth and bring it along. Pass out plates with a bed of quinoa at the base onto which everybody can add their dishes of choice. If you made a quinoa dish that you served hot perhaps a day or two ago for lunch or dinner, bring it cold to the picnic for a different flavor and sensory experience.
You can also make a quinoa salad and compose it to your own creative taste driven by foods that you have on hand. Here is my recipe; it is highly customizable. Please don’t get put off by the number of ingredients; you can make a quick and easy salad with just quinoa, water, and a few ingredients like beans and celery. Use my recipe as a jumping off starting point.

  • Ingredients
  • ✓ Medium sweet potato or (Red Bliss or Yukon Gold) potato; if large you can first quarter it
  • ✓ 1 ½ cup dry uncooked quinoa. Use your choice of quinoa, yellow, red, black, or mixed; pick based on what you have on hand or the color combination that you seek. For example if you are using a lot of light-colored ingredients like cucumbers, onions, and celery, you might pick a dark quinoa like red or black. In my recipe, I have many colors of ingredients so I would opt for yellow.
  • ✓ Twice as much (i.e., 3 cups) vegan stock or water
  • ✓ 1 cup broccoli florets cut into small bite-sized chunks
  • ✓ 1 c (approximately one medium) carrot cut into thin (1/4” or smaller) slices or small (approx. 3/8”) cubes
  • ✓ ¾ cup kale cut into approximately 1” squares (rinse kale and roughly hand tear from stems; discard/compost stems)
  • ✓ 1c grape or cherry tomatoes, halved (approximately 20-24)
  • ✓ ¼ cup red or sweet onion, cut into 1/4” cubes
  • ✓ ¾ cup frozen peas
  • ✓ 1 – 1 ½ cups prepared beans of your choice (try chickpeas, or black or red beans); it’s easy and inexpensive to cook your own stovetop or under pressure from dried beans, but it may be convenient to use canned or boxed beans
  • ✓ Medium-large bell pepper, optionally roasted, cut into 3/8” cubes (app. 1 cup)
  • ✓ 1 – 1 ½ cups stone fruit of your choice cut into 3/8” cubes; I recommend mango or peach
  • ✓ 1t fresh squeezed lemon or lime juice
  • ✓ Ume plum vinegar (or other vinegar that you like) to taste; I don’t like a lot of vinegar so use only 1t or so, but many will enjoy more
  • ✓ 1t dried or 1T fresh herbs (try oregano and/or sage)
  • ✓ Fresh ground black pepper to taste; try 1t
  • ✓ (optional) Salt to taste; try ½ t

Other ingredients that you can consider include:

  • Small-medium cucumber (about ½ - ¾ cup), chopped into 3/8” cubes
  • 3-4 stalks of celery cut into ¼” thick slices
  • 1 cup fresh raw corn stripped from the cob
  • 1 cup blueberries
  • 1T hemp seeds
  • 1t smoked paprika
  • Hot sauce to taste

 

  • Instructions

Next, follow the steps to finalize your dish and finally be able to enjoy it!

  1. Put the potato or sweet potato into a pot of boiling water and turn the heat down to a low boil; cook for about 12-20 minutes depending on the size of the potato until fork tender (push a fork into it and see if you can get the fork to the center with a little resistance); I found small purple potatoes and cooked them for 16 minutes. When done, remove from pan and allow to cool a bit so you can handle.
  2. While the sweet potato or potato is cooking, prepare the rest of the salad. Put the quinoa, water or stock, broccoli, carrot, and kale into a large stock pot and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, uncovered. Cook for about 5-6 minutes until you see the characteristic spiral in the quinoa that shows it is done and till the broccoli and carrot are at the level of doneness that you like. Add more liquid if needed over time.
  3. Remove from heat and mix in the remaining ingredients

Serve at room temperature; makes approximately 15 cups and serves about a dozen

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