Quinoa greek salad (with kale!)
I’m constantly looking for alternatives to prepare for lunch – I want something healthy, but I need flavour to avoid getting bored. I woke up this morning, and had no idea what to make for lunch for my partner and I. I rooted through our pantry and fridge, and decided on making a quinoa greek salad featuring kale. This week, I want to help you brighten up your lunch with an easy and delicious meal that will keep you feeling full without weighing you down.
I had all of the ingredients on hand, and typically do each week – they are the basics I keep kicking around the kitchen. The ingredient list includes: quinoa, kale, cucumber, tomato, red onion, garlic, avocado, lemon, olive oil, salt, pepper, and feta. I only had a half hour to prepare everything this morning, so I prepared all of the ingredients to go in the salad while the quinoa was cooking.
In this week’s Simply Authentic, Jones gives a tutorial on how to make a simply delicious, and light yet hearty lunch – featuring one of her favourites – kale.
If you are new to quinoa, you cook it in the same fashion you’d cook rice – one cup quinoa in two cups of water. Bring the water and quinoa to a boil, then turn down the heat until the water is absorbed. Normally, I would let the quinoa cool in the fridge overnight, but because I was limited on time, I decided to stick it in the freezer for 20 minutes to speed up the process.
While the quinoa was cooking and cooling, I prepared the rest of the ingredients in a glass mixing bowl. First, I chopped 1/4 red onion, and then minced two cloves of garlic. Then, I cut 1/4 cucumber into bite-sized pieces, and cut eight grape tomatoes into four pieces each. I then cut the avocado in half, and added one full avocado cubed into the mix. Finally, I chopped two large kale leaves, and cubed a 1/4-cup of feta cheese. I then cut a lemon in half, and squeezed its juice over the mixture.
Once I had finished this preparation, the quinoa had cooled off enough for me to add it into the bowl with the rest of the ingredients. I then drizzled the mixture with extra-virgin olive oil, and gave it a light dusting of kosher salt and freshly-ground black pepper. The salad was then ready to be mixed and packaged into lunch size containers.
This recipe is great to make the night before in order to allow the flavours to mix together, but it’s also very tasty if made the day-of. It was, as always, a meal that was simply satisfying and made with whole ingredients. There is no better way to ensure a productive day than to fuel yourself with healthy goodness.
Shopping list:
-Quinoa
-Red onion
-Garlic
-Grape tomatoes
-Cucumber
-Avocado
-Kale
-Lemon
-Olive oil
-Kosher salt
-Black pepper
-Feta cheese