White Bean Quinoa Salad
The great thing about this salad is that you can prepare it ahead of time! I like making the quinoa the night before and letting it chill in the fridge overnight so all I have to do the next day is mix in the other ingredients and dressing. You could also make the whole salad the night before and let the flavors marinate in the fridge overnight. A couple additonal notes: 1.) If you're running short on time you can use fresh baby spinach instead of the blanched kale. 2.) The original recipe calls for feta cheese. I left it out this time but Isaac always likes to sprinkle a little on top for that pop of extra flavor.
Servings: 6
Ingredients
- 1 cup uncooked quinoa
- 2 cups water
- 10-15 cherry/grape tomatoes seeded and finely chopped
- 1 can of cannellini beans or other white bean drained and rinsed
- 1-2 cups chopped kale blanched**
- 2/3 cup finely chopped red onion
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar or red wine vinegar
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/8-1/4 cup fresh basil chopped
- 2 avocados pitted, peeled, and sliced and chopped
Instructions
- Bring quinoa and water to a boil in a saucepan. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15 minutes, or until liquid is absorbed.
- In a medium bowl, stir together quinoa, tomatoes, beans, blanched kale and onion.
- In a small bowl, whisk together apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, oil, salt and pepper. Mix with quinoa, fresh basil and avocado chunks.
- Serve right away or let the mixture chill in the fridge a few hours before serving.
- **To blanch kale: wash and de-stem kale, chop it into smallish pieces and add to boiling water for 3 minutes, remove kale from the boiling water with a slotted spoon and place it in a ice water bath. Drain it well, making sure to give it a good squeeze to remove all access liquid.