Quinoa Salad with Berries and Watermelon

By Karina Allrich

Make the quinoa in a rice cooker and you'll keep the kitchen the cool. This time I used Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Cooking ratio of two cups uncooked quinoa with three cups water. It turned out fluffy and perfect, and made enough to create a generous quinoa salad.

My favorite summer meals are picnics. Don't worry if it's too hot to bake dark chocolate brownies. Make a no-cook, sugar-free vegan dessert plate with wedges of fresh watermelon, blueberries and strawberries. Add a mint leaf. Summer fruit is simply glorious as dessert.

Light, refreshing, and fabulous.

 

First make the quinoa:

2 cups uncooked quinoa
3 cups fresh water
Pinch of sea salt, to taste

Rinse the quinoa thoroughly in a fine sieve. Place the quinoa, water, and sea salt in a large to medium rice cooker, and cover. Cook until all the water is evaporated and the quinoa is tender. Scoop the cooked quinoa into a large bowl and fluff with a fork. Let it cool to room temperature.

Meanwhile, prepare the fruit and baby greens.

Ingredients:

1.5 cups fresh blueberries, washed, picked over
1.5 cups fresh strawberries, washed, sliced
1.5 cups diced watermelon
6 cups baby salad greens
A handful of fresh chopped herbs: cilantro, dill, parsley and mint

For the dressing:

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
Fresh squeezed lime juice from 1-2 limes
Cracked pepper, to taste

Instructions:

When the quinoa has cooled, drizzle it with the extra virgin olive oil and toss well to coat, fluffing with a fork to separate the grains. Add the fresh squeezed lime juice and toss again. Season with cracked pepper, to taste. Taste test. Add more olive oil or lime as needed.

Add the blueberries to the quinoa, and toss lightly. 

Distribute the baby greens on six plates. Add the quinoa and blueberries. Add the sliced strawberries and diced watermelon, and the fresh chopped herbs.

And voila! A vegan gluten-free salad. 

Cook time: Maybe 30 minutes

Serves six.

Shared with permission: source: http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2011/07/quinoa-salad-with-blueberries.html