The Salad Bar: Asian Quinoa Salad

Time for another installment of The Salad Bar, hosted by Wendy of The Weekend Gourmet.

This month's theme was Great Grains.  While not technically a grain, I chose quinoa.  It makes great salads.  I found this recipe at For the Love of Cooking and it was so beautiful and colorful that I couldn't resist trying it.  I changed a few things.  Here's my version.

Asian Quinoa Salad

Ingredients:

1 cup quinoa

2 cups water

¼ tsp salt

½ cup red cabbage, chopped

Handful of grape tomatoes, quartered

½ cup shelled edamame, thawed

½ cup corn kernels

½ cup matchstick carrots, roughly chopped

1 tbsp sesame seeds

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 tsp sesame or olive oil

1 tbsp rice wine or white wine vinegar

1-2 tsp water

½ tsp ginger, grated

Dash of red pepper flakes

2 green onions, sliced

½ cup cilantro, chopped

Directions:

Add water, quinoa, and salt to a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Once boiling, reduce to low and simmer for about 15 minutes, or until water is absorbed. Remove from heat and fluff with a fork.

Place the quinoa in a large bowl and let cool for 10 minutes. Add the cabbage, tomatoes, edamame, corn, carrots, and sesame seeds. Set aside.

Combine the soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, water, ginger, and red pepper flakes. Whisk until well combined.

Pour the dressing over the quinoa salad, to taste, then toss until evenly coated with dressing. Top with green onions and cilantro.

Makes 4 servings.

Note: This recipe is gluten-free provided your soy sauce is gluten-free.

This salad is so good! I used tomatoes instead of red bell pepper because of personal prefererence.  I used corn instead of cucumber because I had some that needed to be used up.  The beauty of this salad is that you throw any veggie you like in there.

I just love the rainbow of colors.  And the dressing is amazing!  I really loved it.

The Salad Bar is taking a break in March and April, but we'll be back in May.

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