Quinoa Salad with Zucchini

We love this little grain - and so should you! It's one of the best foods we can eat and is a complete protein! If you can cook rice, you can cook quinoa. It's pretty much the same process - always a 2:1 ratio of water:quinoa. By adding ANY of our seasoning blends to the water while cooking, you will taste the goodness immediately.

INGREDIENTS:

2 1/2 tsp any World Seasonings Blend (plus a pinch or two more)
1 cup quinoa, uncooked
2 cups water
1 medium onion, diced small (any onion, but I used a red onion)
1 1/2 cups zucchini, diced small
2 medium tomatoes, diced
1/3 cup parsley, chopped
Juice of 1 lemon
3 tbsp olive oil

DIRECTIONS:

Here are the ingredients that you need for this recipe.

This is a pretty quick and easy dish. Get out a medium sized pot with a lid. Place over medium high heat, add the quinoa and 1 teaspoon of the seasoning blend you choose. (I used Mediterranean Magic, but have also done this recipe with French Made Easy.) Slightly toast the quinoa and seasonings to release their flavor and brown the grain just a bit. Add the water, bring to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to just above simmer. We have played with this cooking method a lot and have come to realize that cooking it at a slight hotter temperature helps the quinoa absorb the water better. Cook for 12-15 minutes. Remove from heat, fluff with a fork then cover again and let sit for about 10 minutes. This is an important step to keep it from being too wet.

While the quinoa is cooking, get out your favorite cutting board and knife and start to chop away. Quinoa is a small little grain. Keep that in mind when dicing your veggies up. We like to keep the ingredients as uniform as possible. Since the grain is small, take the extra time and dice your veggies to about 1/8" in size. It just makes every bite more balanced with flavor.

Grab a saute pan, add the oil and place over medium high heat. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil plus 1 teaspoon of the seasoning blend you chose. Add the onions and saute for 3-4 minutes. Next you want to add the zucchini along with 1/2 teaspoon more of the same seasoning you chose and saute for another 4-5 minutes. You just want to cook the zucchini and onions to al dente - not mushy but with a little crispness to them. Remove from the heat and transfer to a large bowl.

After the quinoa has cooked and cooled for about 10 minutes, mix all ingredients together. Add the last 1/2 teaspoon of seasoning then give it a taste - if you need a bit more, add another pinch or two. Squeeze lemon. Chill and serve. You can always eat it immediately, but if you can let it chill for a couple hours it's even better.