Simple Summer Quinoa Salad

Summertiiiiiiime, and I’m sweaty and LAAAY-ZEE……

Bugs are bitin’……..and humiditys’ hiiiiiigh.

Still I’m hungry……and I gotta make DIN-ner,

this one is a winner, eas-y as piieeee. 

(OMG, that was horrible, I must be suffering from heat stroke) 😬

Okay so I promise to stop “singing” and making up stupid words to old show tunes if you promise to try this amazing salad. Packed full of veggie goodness, crazy flavorful and ridiculously easy, this is the perfect light meal to whip together when you need to put something on the table, but it’s just way too hot and you’re way too past caring (designated cooks of the world you KNOW what I’m talking about, here).

This beauty will slap a smile onto your sun-burned face, I’m telling you what. Sweet tomatoes, raw spinach and roasted baby bell peppers tossed together with some power packing quinoa and SURPRISE….super fun, super cute fresh mozzarella “pearls”.

Lots of textures and flavors and colors going on here; all slicked together with a gorgeous green, light on the garlic, heavy on the herbaceousness raw sauce; utter perfection in and of itself! Yum! This is a solidly substantial salad, and not to brag on it or anything, but:

• Quinoa is one of the highest forms of protein you can eat, complete with nine essential amino acids that your body cannot make on its own and are only available through diet!
• Spinach is crazy good for you (just ask Popeye) with researchers identifying more than a dozen different types of flavonoid antioxidants, not to mention all of its other super vitamin/mineral goodies.
• Bell peppers lay claim to an extremely high concentration of antioxidants. Just a couple of these little guys will provide more than twice the daily recommended amount of vitamin C, and three-fourths of your daily needed vitamin A intake.

So much goodness with so little effort.

Just like summer, when you take a moment to appreciate it. 🤗

This recipe calls for two cups of cooked quinoa so unless you have some leftover in the fridge (good for you!!! I am never that well prepared) start by getting that cooked up. Don’t panic now, I know I told you this would be easy so trust me, preparing quinoa is a snap.

Just dump one cup of dry quinoa into a sauce pan, add two cups of water and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Bring this up to a boil and once it’s there turn the heat down to a simmer. Cover the pan, and set the timer for 15 minutes. When time’s up, remove the pan from the heat and keep the lid on for five minutes more. Fluff it up and set aside to cool down a little bit. Nothing to it!

While that’s happening cut up about 5 or 6 baby bell peppers into quarters.

Remember these are smaller and sweeter than your average sized bell pepper. Cuter too.

Pop those peppers onto a foil lined sheet pan and give ’em a drizzle of olive oil. Smear everybody up so they are nice and shiny and after a pelting of salt, into a 375° oven these will go for 15 minutes. When time’s up give them a minute to cool, and make the dressing:

Five ingredients! One food processor (or blender, or Bullet)….and you are golden. Or should I say emerald? Parsley, garlic, Dijon mustard, red wine vinegar, olive oil and some salt and pepper (naturally), with an optional pinch of red pepper flake and you will end up with one of my favorite multi-use (it’s a marinade! no, it’s a sauce! no, it’s a salad dressing!) dose of deliciousness out there, my Raw Herb Sauce (want to see the full post and all the silly banter that goes along with  that go HERE).

Half up a pint of cherry tomatoes or, if you can get your hands on something like these, some adorable “wild wonders“; tri-colored, cultivated, little mini-gourmet tomatoes. Not just eye candy, these little lycopene jewels actually all taste a leeetle bit different: some more sweet, some more acid…..so it’s a kinda cool way to mix it up with your salad ingredients.

Open a package of fresh mozzarella “pearls”. These are much smaller than the fresh mozzarella “balls” you see packed in water over there in the cheese section, but if the larger size are all you can procure, no worries! Use those! Just maybe slice them in half.

You’ll be needing some raw spinach as well, so roughly chop about two cups of that, keeping in mind that you can alter these proportions ANY. WAY. You. LIKE.

Now it’s just a matter of assembly.

In a nice big bowl…in no particular order, dump in your tomato halves, spinach, roasted bell peppers and itty bitty mozzarella cuties. In goes the cooled quinoa. Add about a half cup of the raw sauce and give it a gentle toss to coat. 

Better than money! 

Okay, maybe not better but pretty close.

RECIPE BELOW: Even with the chore of cooking up quinoa and roasting the peppers, you should have this pulled together in less than 30 minutes – NO PROBLEMO. Want to use your own dressing recipe or some other bottled something or other? I can’t imagine why that wouldn’t work. Not so crazy about peppers….OR you happen to have a couple of zucchini you purchased with the best of intentions yet still, there they are staring at you in the face? Roast those up instead! I am just saying this is nothing if not flexible….so you do you. Makes enough for 4 for dinner, even more if you plan to use it as a side. Plays well paired with fish, chicken, whatever. Leftovers are insanely, surprisingly HAPPY! You will be too.