Summer Quinoa Salad Recipe with Zesty Lemon and Creamy Avocado

Mommy and Daddy on Father's Day

I'm visiting my family in Virginia right now! I am super excited to blog during my stay because I will be visiting the 2 main inspirations of this blog (no Brian wasn't the original inspiration for the blog, but I can say that he is a big beneficiary of it!). My two inspirations are my mom and my dad.

First off, the blog was my mom's idea because I was always emailing her about the stuff I made for Brian and I to eat. One day she said I should put it all together and call it "Stuff I Feed Brian"...and so I did. My dad was a major inspiration as well. He has been losing a lot of weight in an effort to improve his heart health. A lot of my recipes are things that I hope my mom will make for him to help in his healthy eating, weight loss efforts.

So when I arrived to their brand new house, I was ecstatic to see that my mom had stocked her new walk-in pantry with several packages of quinoa (and of course other gluten free treats like my guilty pleasure Panda Puffs cereal). So for our first dinner here I got straight to work on cooking up that quinoa. I saw that she had some perfectly ripe avocados, some nice dark leafy greens, and a package of cherry tomatoes. Perfect ingredients for a refreshing summer quinoa salad with a Mediterranean flair.

Chef Elijah at Father's Day Brunch

My favorite part about making this meal was that I had a little help from my soon-to-be-2-year-old nephew chef Elijah. He was a huge help by adding the tomatoes and greens to the bowl. Oh, and you will notice that this recipe does use cheese, because I didn't feed it to Brian. I used goat cheese, partially because it was what my mom had in her fridge, but it is also my preferred source of dairy because it is far more easily digested than cow's milk/cheese...and tastier in my opinion too! You could easily just leave out the cheese in this recipe if you want to make it vegan, as it is really just an added bonus.

Zesty Lemon and Avocado Summer Quinoa Salad Recipe
Ingredients
1 cup quinoa (soaked for 30 min and rinsed if not prewashed)
1 1/2 cups water
1 avocado
10 cherry tomatoes halved
3-4 handfuls of baby spinach (about 10 Elijah sized handfuls)
salt, fresh ground pepper, oregano, basil, and granulated garlic
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tbs olive oil
1/4 cup goat cheese crumbles or feta (optional)

Put the quinoa and 1 1/2 cups of water in a small saucepan. Sprinkle in some salt and bring it to a boil. Cover the quinoa, reduce heat, and simmer for 10-15 minutes. It is done when all the water is absorbed and little holes start to appear on top of the quinoa. If you check and it is not quite ready, you can always re-cover, turn off the heat, and let sit for 5 or so more minutes.

Put the quinoa in a large mixing bowl and refrigerate while you prep the other ingredients. Most of the prep is pretty self explanatory, but I will give a quick note on preparing the avocado. Everyone seems to have a different way to get the avocado flesh out of the peel. The way I do it is, cut it in half lengthwise. Stab the pit to remove it. Then with a butter knife or the dull side of a sharp knife, criss cross (gonna make you jump jump) a grid into the avocado. Then scoop it out with a spoon, so you have diced avocado without dirtying a cutting surface. Meanwhile, you can also mix the olive oil, lemon juice, and spices in a little bowl.

Once all your ingredients are prepped, toss it all into the mixing bowl full of quinoa, starting with the dressing first. Use two forks to fluff the other ingredients into the quinoa to prevent it from mushing. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour or so before serving (but don't make this one too far in advance because the avocado will brown!) Enjoy cold as a side dish or light entree. This is great for bringing to a bbq because it holds up when prepared in advance.

Oh and sorry no pics of this lovely meal. I was too distracted by my adorable nephew to remember to take a picture. But, I can tell you that the colors are beautiful and next time I make it I will be sure to put a picture up here.

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