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Cold Quinoa & Veggie Salad

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Happy Monday, friends! Remember that cutest baby contest that I entered my daughter in? Don’t you remember? I was harassing you about it? Ahh, yes. THAT contest. Well, good news! She won! And it’s all thanks to you! Thank you all for voting 🙂

Now, like I promised, here is a healthy recipe! After my 12 days of holiday treats, new years, and my addiction to carbs…it’s about time I put something green in my mouth. And by green I mean nutritious. And this certainly is. Made with quinoa, grape tomatoes, cucumbers, low fat salami, swiss cheese, and low fat balsamic dressing. Seriously so easy. If you don’t like some of the ingredients in here, just swap them out. Who knew you could do that, right?  If you’re going to put in the effort to make something healthy, you might as well like it.

And, I’m making no promises to continue posting healthy recipes. I don’t want to jinx my health food cravings.

To make this salad, start off pouring water into a small pot.

Pour some quinoa into the water along with some salt and bring to boil. Reduce to simmer until all the water is slurped up by the grains. It’s just like making rice.

While the quinoa is cooking, slice up your veggies & things. I used these super sweet grape tomatoes,

swiss cheese,

low fat salami,

and cukes.

Once the quinoa is cooked, remove it from the pot and cool a few minutes.

Pour in some dressing while it’s still warm and stir. I used a low fat balsamic dressing right out of the bottle, right from the store. Use one you like! Italian or greek dressing would be super yummy!

Add in all those chopped veggies and stir. You can eat this luke warm, but the idea of consuming warm cucumbers gives me the heebie geebies! Refrigerate this until cold.

Once this is all cold, serve it up and enjoy!

That wasn’t too hard, was it? Makes a great light lunch or side for dinner. Enjoy! 🙂

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Cold Quinoa & Veggie Salad

Servings 4 servings

Ingredients

  • 2 cups cold water
  • 1 cup quinoa
  • salt
  • 1 whole cucumber peeled and chopped
  • 1 1/2 cups halved grape tomatoes
  • 1 cup cubed swiss cheese
  • 1 cup sliced low fat salami
  • 3 tablespoons low fat balsamic dressing

Instructions

  1. In a small pot, stir water, quinoa and salt together. Cover and bring to boil. Reduce to simmer until water has been absorbed, about 20 minutes. After it's cooked, pour into large bowl to cool slightly. After 5 minutes, pour in chopped veggies, meat and cheese. Toss with dressing and refrigerate until completely chilled. Serve.

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Comments

  21. Jennifer | Mother Thyme says

    I love Quinoa and this looks yummy. Going to be trying this recipe soon! Congrats on your daughter winning the contest! 🙂

    Reply

  24. Elisa says

    This looks great! In place of (or in addition to) the cucumber you could use scallions, or maybe red onion. Feta cheese would be good too. Oh, so many great ideas!

    Reply

  25. Greg Clough says

    I really enjoyed this. My brothers wife asked me to try it and I did. Wow, awesome. Anyhow, I just tried it again (on my own) and I added artichokes. Its really, really good. Thanks very much.

    Can I add other stuff to make it more interesting?

    Regards,

    Reply

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