When the quinoa craze struck me, I promptly bought a big box of it and placed it in the kitchen. The picky eaters would not touch it unless it is interesting like this or colorful as in the current recipe.
Salads are normally not part of the Indian menu and I hardly make them at home although they are as simple as tossing things together. But, ever since I started blogging I have been trying to experiment with salads.
Strawberries and spinach were on sale and I decided to make it more filling by adding quinoa to it. Surprisingly, K liked it too. The only work in making the salad is the chopping of the spinach and strawberries. You can use any dressing of choice and I normally stick with lemon juice and olive oil. Off to the recipe.
Spinach Strawberry and Quinoa Salad
Healthy salad with strawberries, spinach and quinoa.
Ingredients:
- quinoa - 1/4 cup
- spinach - 1/2 cup - fresh
- strawberries - as needed
- walnuts - handful - chopped
- lemon juice - 1 tbsp
- olive oil - 1 tbsp
- salt - to taste
- pepper - to taste
Instructions:
Wash quinoa. Take quinoa, 1/2 cup of water and salt in a pot and bring to a boil. Simmer until the quinoa is cooked. You can see that the quinoa looks pearly with a white ring around it when cooked. Fluff it with a fork and leave aside to cool. Refer to this post for the pictorial.
Cut spinach into long thin strips (chiffonade) by stacking them up and rolling them into a log. Then slice them into thin strips.
Place the spinach as the base and add the strawberries, quinoa and nuts to it.
Prepare the dressing by mixing lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. Drizzle over the salad.
My Notes
- Adjust the quantity of lemon juice and olive oil to taste.
Pictorial
Wash quinoa and take in a pot. For one part of quinoa, add 2 parts of water.
Add salt.
Bring to a boil.
Cook until the germ separates from seed(10 – 15 minutes). You can see that the quinoa looks pearly with a white ring around it. Fluff it with a fork and leave aside to cool.
Stack up a few spinach leaves.
Roll into a tight log.
Slice to form ribbons. This is called chiffonade.
Arrange the spinach in a plate. This is our base.
Take olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper in a bowl.
Mix well.
Assemble the salad in anyway you want and pour the dressing on top.
Healthy salad ready.
Enjoy!
Very healthy & interesting salad.
Wat a unique and healthy combo,inviting salad.
Love the combination of ingredients! The salad looks spectacular!
If you pass me this, I will finish it immediately but wihtout spinach. I still cudn’t make myself to eat fresh spinach. I will try atleast in the future. Looks super good especially the decoration.
very healthy n colorful looking salad…love the dressing part, simple n yummy !
Never had I thought I can get such a beautiful dish with the 3 most impossible ingredients. as for the cutting of spinach its great. Love it.
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I ve never imagined spinach and strawberries together. But that bowl of salad looks delicious!! and healthy tooo i can imagine all those antioxdants from the strawberries
Very interesting combination, looks colourful have bookmarked it.
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