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quinoa salad

Blueberry & Halloumi Quinoa Salad with Charred Corn

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Grilled summer corn, fresh blueberries, and halloumi cheese all come together to create this Blueberry & Halloumi Quinoa Salad with Charred Corn. A flavourful salad you will want to bring to your next potluck!

When my parents bought property and built a house, they planted fruit trees, berry bushes, constructed a greenhouse and planted rows and rows of potatoes, beans, corn and any vegetable they could fit in and on their 1/4 acre piece of land. If they could grow it in Northern British Columbia they would, or they would sure try.

Since most of this happened in my teen years I was only able to experience a small amount of the bounty since I left home as soon as I graduated, around the age of 17. I moved home for the summer before I departed for Vancouver to try and save a little extra money for University.

Mom would can a lot of the berries and then she got into making home made wine with her large haul of fruit. She was gifted when it came to wine making, quite possibly learned from some of her Portuguese friends and every so often would some to me in Vancouver. Blueberries was one of those berries she used creatively therefore it’s not surprising I like to get creative with berries and fruit when they are in season.

Blueberry Halloumi Quinoa Salad ingredients
Blueberry Halloumi Quinoa Salad ingredients minus the corn (it was being charred)

Quinoa is a grain we like to eat and creating a new quinoa salad to love is almost a part time hobby here. If you are looking to add more quinoa into your diet check out some of our other recipes like the Moroccan Quinoa Salad, Quinoa Burgers or Quinoa Stuffed Peppers.

Blueberry Halloumi Quinoa Salad camping
Blueberry Halloumi Quinoa Salad camping

This recipe came to be one summer following the arrival of BC blueberries and our love for quinoa. Charring the corn and the orange for the dressing adds a smokey touch. It’s a good salad to take camping or to potlucks, just double the batch if needed. People loved it during our camping potlucks.

 

 

Blueberry Halloumi Quinoa Salad
Blueberry Halloumi Quinoa Salad

 

Green Apple & Cranberry Quinoa Salad

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Meals during the week have to be quick since the kids have activities. These are the days they come home from school, play with the dog, check their emails, do their homework, eat and go to activities, so dinner has to be easy and fast. By the time they get home it’s bed time. Last night was one of those nights, and unfortunately I had not done any meal prep in advance. Off to the store I went to pick up some quick grill sausages and a few ingredients to make a Quinoa Salad.

Green Apple, Gouda & Cranberry Quinoa
Green Apple, Gouda & Cranberry Quinoa

I tend to make my quinoa a day or two in advance. I like it cool or right out of the fridge vs hot off the stove. I find it fluffs up when it has time to sit and cool off plus it’s available for a quick meal solution. This salad is Gluten Free and can be made dairy free by not adding the cheese.

I’m happy my whole family enjoys quinoa and I no longer feel like I have to put a carb on the table (rice, pasta, potato). Grains are a beautiful & filling thing.

 

Bok Choy & Quinoa Salad with Tahini Dressing

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It was bound to happen. If you follow my blog you’ll know firstly I love Quinoa and secondly have been a fan of bok choy salads since the early 90’s. It was only a matter of time before these two collided in my kitchen. My kids started really liking salads last year (anything from spinach, arugula to a mixed bag) so I am able to toss some chopped bok choy into their regular salad and they don’t even notice.

I never jumped on the kale bandwagon as I honestly prefer bok choy and have for almost 20 years. It’s got all the good stuff in it, vitamins, fiber, anti-oxidants, calcium, phosphorous, potassium, manganese, iron and magnesium. I do eat kale from time to time, but not as much as I eat bok choy.

I’d never had a tahini dressing before but since it includes most of the ingredients that go into making hummus, I decided to give it a try. As I made the dressing I tasted it without the garlic, and then added the garlic, and it went from ok to amazing! I love the addition of fresh garlic in a salad dressing, but make sure others around you are eating it to, if you know what I mean! There were no vampires bothering me that day. If you like hummus you will like this dressing.

If you do not have the Ras de hanout spice just use extra cumin. This is seriously one of my favourite dressings now and I even put some on my baked potato. You could easily add any grilled protein to this dish or any additional vegetables you enjoy.

 

 

 

Moroccan Quinoa Salad

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If you’ve been following along you’ll know how much I love quinoa salads. And the combinations are endless. Since I don’t eat as much protein as I should, it’s the perfect meal to add additional protein to my diet. For those new to quinoa, it’s a grain packed full of protein and a good one to introduce to the kidlets.

In some of my earlier recipes I advise my preference of cooking a big batch of the quinoa in advance and letting it cool overnight in the fridge. It becomes fluffier once it’s had time to rest. Every day for lunch scoop out 1 cup and use it for your salad. This makes for a new salad every day using the ingredients you like and your favourite dressing. You could also scoop out 1/4 cup of the cooked quinoa and put it in your soup or chili.

Using my special ingredient from The Missing Ingredient Food Subscription Package I received last month, I came up with this Moroccan Quinoa Salad based on some of the flavours had recently at one of the Moroccan Restaurants in Calgary, Sultan’s Tent. Roasted chick peas really turns this salad up a notch. Yes I inhaled it.

 

 

Pomegranate and Orange Quinoa Salad

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This Pomegranate and Orange Quinoa Salad was made for our recent Ladies Halloween Wine Evening. Since it was a theme evening, I named it “blood clot salad with crunchy finger nails“. It was very well recieved and so much fun to make.

It all started with a variation of this salad I’ve been making all year. The dressing always stays the same, as does the main ingredient, oranges. Typically I tend to add some form of greens into it. Parsley, kale, scallions…anything I find in my fridge.

One day last week I was cleaning a pomegranate, with a hovering daughter, and I started thinking about putting pomegranates into the quinoa salad. They are everywhere in the stores and I swear we’ve already gone through half a dozen as my daughter loves them. They certainly are the perfect snack, full of antioxidants and I love how much she enjoys them. While cleaning away, I was having more thoughts about our Halloween evening and what bites I was going to bring. I had already decided on Pumpkin Vomit, made with guacamole, but I wanted a second dish to bring. Just because I’m crazy like that!! For some reason the term “blood clots” came to mind and then the light bulb moment….pomegranates in the salad could be blood clots. I think it could work.

I eat a lot of quinoa salad and always cook the quinoa the day before as I prefer it cooled down for my salad. It becomes very fluffy when you allow it to rest after cooking. The next day I scooped the seeds out of my mini pumpkin and carved it. It was going to by my vomiting pumpkin prop. Since we always roast our pumpkin seeds, I wanted to roast these ones to munch on. I tossed the seeds with oil, salt and cumin but had to turn the oven off and run out to the bus to get my kids mid roast. When I returned the residual heat from the oven had crunchified them a little. Still yummy however and then it came to me, they could be a salad addition of crunchy finger nails. Boom Chaka Laka. We were on a roll.

This is pretty much how this salad came to be. Started with the usual suspects, didn’t have any parsley so I used some of the bok choy greens in my fridge, roasted some pine nuts and tossed it all together.

This is enough for one serving. Double and triple if you are wanting to feed 4 or more and have leftovers for lunch.

 

Blood Clot Salad with Crunchy Finger Nails
Blood Clot Salad with Crunchy Finger Nails

 

 

Mediterranean Quinoa Salad

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Day 4 of Quinoa Lunches will be my rendition of a Mediterranean Quinoa Salad consisting of what I could find in my pantry/fridge.  I love so many of these flavours I ended up adding quite a few items.  Add what you like.  Any kind of bean would be yummy as would roasted eggplant.

Having your quinoa precooked and in the fridge makes whipping up a salad easy.  1 batch of cooked quinoa (as I noted in my Thai Inspired Quinoa Salad) makes 3 cups which is good enough for 3 salads.  I made up a dressing for this salad or you can use olive oil.  Or buy your favourite Greek Dressing.

Thursday’s Lunch…..

 

 

Turkey Curry Quinoa Salad

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Day 3 of creating new Quinoa Salads for lunch, and there’s still leftover turkey in the fridge. Last month I made a tasty sandwich I called the Curry Chicken Sandwich and so I decided to turn this sandwich into a salad, the Turkey Curry Quinoa Salad.

For this salad I tried two different dressings, Blue Menu Pineapple Curry and a home made curry dressing, much like the one used to make the Curry Chicken Sandwich. Whatever dressing you decide on, as long as it has curry, it will be perfect.

Adding cilantro, if you like it, would give this quinoa a touch of freshness.

Tip: Keep a jar of curry paste in your fridge and you can be whipping up Curry in a Hurry whenever the urge hits. Remember to swap chicken for turkey if that’s what you have on hand.

Double the protein, double the deliciousness and this is Wednesday’s lunch.

 

Leftover Turkey Quinoa Salad

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An easy salad to make when you have cooked quinoa in the fridge! Turn leftovers from your holiday turkey dinner into this Leftover Turkey Quinoa Salad!

Turkey Leftover Quinoa Salad
Turkey Leftover Quinoa Salad

If you are like me and are always looking for new ideas to use up leftovers, especially turkey or chicken, this is the perfect salad to help with those leftovers!

When you cook your big turkey meal and are making brussels sprouts, ensure you put a few fresh sprouts to the side for this dish. Save some squash and cube it or pick up a small butternut squash and roast it.

Turkey Leftover Quinoa Salad
Get a little of everything on each bite of Turkey Leftover Quinoa Salad

Making the Salad

Plan ahead for this salad. I like to make the quinoa the night before and let it fluff and cool in the fridge. That way I can add whatever I want to 1-2 cups of quinoa plus a quick dressing and have a salad ready to go.

I have found there is so much flavour in this dish you really do not need an actual vinaigrette. Extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper and lemon juice make it sparkle!

Slice the sprouts thin, they will give you a little crunch in your salad.

Turkey Leftover Quinoa Salad
Turkey Leftover Quinoa Salad is a delicious way to use leftovers

PRO TIPS

  • Cook 1 cup of quinoa in 2 cups of water the night before. You will end up with 4-5 cups of quinoa.
  • If using fresh squash, dice it, mix with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast in 350F oven until soft.
  • You can plump your dried cranberries in water or orange juice for 15 minutes to take the edge off.
  • Swap pecans for pine nuts, walnuts or almonds.
  • Make this vegetarian or vegan by omitting the turkey and adding more sprouts and squash.
  • Some people insist on washing the quinoa before cooking. I never do and it’s always tasted great.
  • Spices I use are simple flavours like poultry seasoning, spices with lemon zest, thyme, sage, salt and pepper.
Leftover Turkey Quinoa Salad
Leftover Turkey Quinoa Salad

Looking for other ways to use up leftover chicken or turkey? Here’s some of our favourite recipes!

 

Thai Inspired Quinoa Salad

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We’ve combined the flavours of Thailand and created this tasty Thai Inspired Quinoa Salad.

 

Once upon a time, or some week in 2013 I decided to make 5 new quinoa salad lunches. A regular here in our house that’s always in rotation, I wanted to challenge myself and really think about what I love about quinoa and turn it into a tasty salad.

Grains have been a part of my diet for the past 20 years and since having kids I cook with them even more as an alternative to meat.

A confessed Thai food lover, this salad is a Thai Inspired Quinoa Salad using whatever “Thai” ingredients I could find in my fridge. The flavours in this salad are bold and it turned out delicious.

Cook your quinoa according to package directions or remember 2 cups liquid to 1 cup quinoa in a pot and bring to a boil. This amount will yield you 5-6 cups of fluffy quinoa.

When it comes to quinoa preparation some say to wash your quinoa, others do not. I’ve done both and have noticed a difference in taste so I opt not to wash my quinoa to save time.

I buy the organic, gluten free Quinoa from Costco so important to note this recipe is gluten free.

Thai Inspired Quinoa Salad
Recipe Type: Lunch, Dinner, Side
Ingredients
  • 1 cup quinoa, cooked
  • 2 green onions, chopped
  • 1/2 cup carrots, grated
  • 1/2 cup cucumber, sliced into strips or chopped
  • 1/2 cup cilantro (or parsley), chopped (save a pinch for dressing)
  • 1 tbsp fresh mint, chopped (save a pinch for dressing)
  • Toasted sesame seeds/slivered almonds
  • 1/4 cup Dressing (below)
Instructions
  1. Take one cup of your cooked quinoa and place in a bowl. Add green onions, carrots, cucumber, cilantro and mint. Pouring in dressing and toss lightly. Taste for seasoning and if required add more dressing/salt/pepper to your liking.
  2. To serve sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and/or slivered almonds.
Notes
To make dressing whisk together 1 tsp sesame oil, juice of 1 lime, 1 tsp fish sauce, 1/2 tsp honey, pinch salt & pepper, pinch sliced mint, pinch sliced cilantro, about 1/8-1/4 cup rice wine vinegar, between 1/3 & 1/2 cup olive oil and a couple dashes sriracha sauce (or more if you like it spicy).

 

Quinoa Cucumber & Mint Salad

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Quinoa Cucumber & Mint Salad is a simple to make anytime of the year.  So impressed was I that hubby really enjoyed this salad. So much so he took it for lunch today. Now if only I could get the kidlets to enjoy quinoa since it is a complete protein and good for you. Here’s hoping one day!

This is a quick-lunch, side dish or even meal for one. Add some roasted/grilled chicken if you wish or it as is. Yum.