Summer is officially here and as the days get hotter, longer, and fun summer bbq’s and dinners come our way, nothing is better to eat and share than a refreshing yet filling salad. Today’s recipe is inspired by Karina, The Gluten-Free Goddess. All I can say is that if you haven’t checked out this blog, you need to get on it! Karina is the queen of all that is tasty and gluten free.
I took her awesome Quinoa Taco Salad, altered it to make it easier to digest (that means no corn) and also detox friendly for all my Summer Stunner Detoxers (I love you, SSD’s!). The end result is a filling, yummy, gluten-free salad that is full of all that’s great about summer cooking and about 99% solely farmers’ market ingredients. This salad is great for dinner, lunch, or to take to a summer potluck.
(Quick tip: Quinoa has a naturally occurring, protective coating called saponin. Soaking overnight or a few hours helps to remove it best, but if you don’t have time to do that, rinising it will also help to remove it. This process also helps to make it even more digestible.)
Lime Avocado Quinoa Salad
- 1 cup quinoa cooked in two cups water (you can do this on the stove or in a rice cooker)
- Olive Oil (as needed)
- The juice of 2-3 limes (fresh limes, no bottled stuff!)
- 1 large avocado, pitted and diced
- Small handful of chopped cilantro
- 1/2 of a small red onion, diced
- 1/4 cup diced green onions
- Sea salt
- One diced white or yellow peach
- 1 large head of romaine or red leaf lettuce, rinsed, dried, and chopped
Directions: Cook quinoa and set aside in a large bowl.
In the large bowl, drizzle the quinoa with a bit of olive oil and toss well. Then, squeeze the lime juice and sea salt (to taste) and toss again.
Next, add in your cilantro, red onion, green onion, and toss again. Add in the avocado and toss. Lastly, add in the diced peach, toss, and add in more lime juice if desired.
In a salad bowl, line the bowl with the lettuce, scoop out some of the salad onto the lettuce, and garnish with a couple of lime wedges or extra avocado. This salad goes lovely with some grilled or baked salmon, which is what I did with mine.
Hope you enjoy and, should you make this, you will be the star of your next summer potluck!
Anita – I have to tell you how wonderful this is! I’m a very picky eater and don’t always try new things. But this recipe seemed to hit me just right. Since the first batch, I’ve made 3 more batches and shared it with my entire family.
Great stuff. I really appreciate you sharing. 🙂 Thanks, Tara
Tara, so glad you found my site and this recipe….super yum for summer,right? 🙂 I promise to have more good stuff for you to try soon!
This recipe with quinoa looks really really good. I’m gonna try it really soon as I’m obsessed with quinoa!
I also recently wrote an article on the health benefits of quinoa, check it out: http://www.theironyou.com/2011/03/more-on-quinoa.html
Peace
Mike
Hey Mike!! I hope this turned out well for you!! Quinoa is a staple in my home for sure!
this looks good…. I bought quinoa but then I didn’t know what to do with it! I like how you explain the recipe in print and on video. It helps me a lot. I bought a rice cooker a few years ago and didn’t know what to do with it. It was probably 2 years before someone informed me that I can use it for things other than straight up plain old rice. LOL I just didn’t know! ~ Amanda
Hey Amanda!
I love me some quinoa! SO many cool ways to prepare it…guess I should put up another recipe on it! 🙂
hey, I notice you said “I love quinoa because it cooks so quickly. there isn’t that waiting game that there is with rice”. This might sound dumb but does my rice cooker know when the quinoa is ready? my rice cooker is basically “on”, “warm”, or “off”. does it know it is done by how dry it becomes, the temperature it gets to or by time? ha ha see, I am a super noob. ~Amanda
I think it does 🙂 I think you can just use it like you would for rice.
You must log in to post a comment. Log in now.