Whew. I feel like I’m going in a million different directions lately. Even though I had a ton of things I could have gotten done last night, I was glad when Isaac asked if I wanted to go see a movie – something we haven’t done in quite a long while. We saw Ruby Sparks. The fact that it’s directed by the same directors that worked on Little Miss Sunshine is what inspired me to pick it. Little Miss Sunshine is one of my favorite movies of all time. Ruby Sparks was good (not better than LMS) – it had a romantic comedy feel, but with a creative storyline. I was a fan.
Moving along… how about some tabbouleh?
One of the dishes I loved at the beer dinner last weekend was the quinoa tabbouleh. I was intrigued and delighted by it’s tastiness so I asked Bob, the guy who brought it, for the recipe. He pointed me to this recipe on Epicurious. We already had quinoa, fresh tomatoes and cucumbers on hand and we have three basil plants in the backyard so I decided to use that instead of going to buy more parsley and mint. I like basil better anyway! It worked out quite nicely, if I do say so myself.
Quinoa Tabbouleh with Fresh Basil
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
- 1 cup quinoa, rinsed well
- 2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 cup red onion, finely chopped
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 4 Tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt, plus more to taste
- freshly ground pepper, to taste
- 1 large English hothouse cucumber or 2 small cucumbers, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1/2 cup (packed) fresh basil leaves
- 2 Tablespoons fresh parsley leaves (optional)
- Bring quinoa and 1 1/4 cups water to a boil in a medium saucepan over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until quinoa is tender, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand, covered, for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork.
- Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine lemon juice, onion, garlic, salt and ground pepper. Let sit about 5 minutes to soften the onion. Gradually whisk in olive oil.
- Spread out quinoa on a large rimmed baking sheet; let cool. Transfer to a large bowl; mix in 1/4 cup dressing.
- Add cucumber, tomatoes and herbs to the bowl with the quinoa; toss to coat. Season to taste with salt and pepper if needed. Drizzle remaining dressing over.
Source: toneitup.com via Brittany on Pinterest
Happy Wednesday friends!
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
That looks like a great quick workout – I like when you change what you’re doing every few minutes, it makes the time go so quickly!
I did that workout a couple times too and love it! I am really looking forward to it during the winter because it can be easily modified for inside (i.e. high knees, jumping jacks, jump rope, run in place instead of sprinting).
I just did the toned in 30 for the first time yesterday and it was such a great workout! I have never commented on your blog before but I had to say that I read it daily, actually, multiple times a day. I read quite a few blogs and yours is one of my favorites. You are doing a great job and I really enjoy your posts. They are easy to relate to, informative, fun and inventive. Thanks for sharing all you do!
Love the dishes! Where’d you get them?
The dish in the photo was a hand-me-down from my mom.
I saw Ruby Sparks last week and I loved it! Such a hipster love story, how could I not?
This quinoa looks sooo good!!! I’m loving basil these days. (I’m drinking blackberry basil essence water right now. So good!)
Can’t wait for Tio Pablo tonight!!
What about the spoon? That too?
That’s from Antropologie.
This looks so good! I’d love to try this out with quinoa
looooove quinoa : )
I have leftover quinoa in the fridge and am going to make this tomorrow! Thanks.
Lovin all of this quinoa love! Finding new uses for basil is always fun — especially when it’s fresh.
My grandma has made a quinoa tabbouleh for me before and it was mighty tasty – and pretty easy, too!! I definitely would make this one…maybe for my grandma to repay her haha
Thank you for the new idea for quinoa, I’m always looking for something new to liven up an otherwise dull food. I’ll add some chillies to spice things up a little.
I have been craving this tabbouleh since we both ‘fell for it’ last weekend. LOVE the addition of basil, which I’m pretty sure I thought was in the original dish but clearly wasn’t. [Perhaps I was still tasting the basil from my beer pairing?]
I am going to bookmark that workout. I am in need of something to jazz up my strength training since I am SO bored with the weight machines. This looks like a great mix of cardio and toning.