Quinoa Tabbouleh

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Quinoa is a terrific power food, and a vegetarian's best friend. It's got protein. It's got fiber. It's got the kind of amino acids you're looking for. It acts and looks like a grain, but it's really a seed.

And it's delicious in place of the traditional bulgar in a tabbouleh-like salad.

As mentioned in my Ten in '10 post, we're finally getting around to eating healthier these days. This salad, with lots of garbanzo beans thrown into mix and served on a bed of lettuce, made a perfect complete dinner for me. We grilled up a piece of chicken to supplement my guy's. 

Here's the recipe!

Quinoa Tabbouleh

Serves 4-5

Adapted from The Carb-Conscious Vegetarian

Ingredients:

• 1 cup quinoa (rinsed and drained, unless the box tells you it's not needed)
• 2 cups water
• 1 cucumber, peeled and chopped
• 2 tomatoes, diced
• 1 – 15 oz. can garbanzo beans (aka chickpeas), drained
• 3 scallions, chopped
• 1/2 – 1 cup chopped parsley (I go with 1 cup, but I'm a parsley freak)
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice (usually, for me, this works out to roughly the juice of one medium lemon)
• Mixed salad greens
• Salt to taste

Instructions:

1. Boil the water in a medium saucepan, and add a little salt if you want.
2. Add the quinoa, then turn the heat to low, cover, and simmer for about 15 minutes until the quinoa has absorbed all the water (it cooks up much like rice – this picture shows quinoa that's fluffy and cooked).

   

3. Drain the quinoa if there is excess liquid.
4. In a large bowl, mix the cucumber, tomato, garbanzo beans, scallions, parsley, and quinoa.
5. In a separate small bowl, mix together the olive oil, lemon juice, and a few dashes of salt to taste.
6. Pour the olive oil and lemon juice mixture over the salad, and toss gently.
7. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour.
8. Salt to taste, if necessary, and serve over the mixed greens.