Quinoa Salad

Two years ago I grew quinoa (see September 2012) - a wonderful and versatile ancient grain.  It's easy to grow and beautiful as well, but treating it for consumption is another matter!  I discovered that it's extremely time-consuming to winnow out the grain and then process it in water to remove the soapy coating.  It was a great experiment, but one that won't be repeated in my garden.  I'll buy it instead!

Today we had a mountain of ham in the fridge and thought a cold supper would hit the spot on this lovely, warm day.  The potatoes aren't ready to dig up yet so potato salad was off the menu.  A quinoa salad,  however, would be just right.  Tomorrow is shopping day, so there wasn't a lot of stuff in the fridge and the garden is just starting to produce, so I made it with what I had on hand.

I cooked the quinoa up with chicken stock and chopped the vegetables fine.  It was tossed with an Asian dressing.

Easy Quinoa Salad for Two

1/2 cup of quinoa
1 cup water
1 chicken sachet

Bring the liquid to a boil, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.  Then turn off the heat and allow to steam for another 15 minutes.  Cool to room temperature, then add vegetables.  I had on hand:

Carrot, red pepper, spring onions, tomato, parsley - all diced.  Cilantro would be great, but I'm one of those people who don't like cilantro!

Dressing:  1 part each sesame oil, honey, soy sauce, 4 parts rice wine vinegar and a dash of hot sauce.  Shake up in a small jar then pour over salad and mix well.  Cool in the fridge for at least an hour.

Okay - only the parsley and onions came from my garden, but soon I'll be able to go there for everything!  And as for potato salad, I have a great one I'll share when the potatoes are ready to dig.

PS - my husband loved the salad!