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

By Vardhini, August 28, 2012

Healthy salad with strawberries, spinach and quinoa.

• Total Time: 35 minutes
• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook time: 20 minutes
• Yield: 3 servings

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

1. Adjust the quantity of lemon juice and olive oil to taste.

Pictorial

Healthy salad ready.

Enjoy!