This healthy recipe can be made as a side dish or a complete meal.
We are back with another Brittany’s bits, and this week I am making something I make fairly often, almost every week because I bring it to lunch with me. So if you’re into meal prepping, making something fairly healthy and you like the Mediterranean style, this one is for you. It is Mediterranean quinoa salad. Now, if you don’t like quinoa, you can always sub out brown rice. You can do some other sort of grain, whatever you’d like, or you can just make it with the vegetables and the beans and throw in some chicken, and then you will have a meal for the week. So Let’s get started with my quinoa. I’m going to basically just take a cup and you want to do a 2 to 1. So for every 1 cup of quinoa, you’re gonna do 2 cups of liquid. You can take it down from there or take it up from there, and you always want to measure out and then rinse off your quinoa. So I’m gonna do that with my little quinoa here. I’m gonna do a cup of that and then 2 cups of broth. Now you can always do water as well, but I like to boost the flavor, so I’m using some veggie broth. You can use chicken broth, maybe beef broth. Whatever you have and then you’re gonna put it on the stove, boil it, and then once it comes to a boil, reduce it for about 15 minutes and it’s as easy as that. So I’m gonna take care of all of this. So again, just over on the stove. I’m gonna put it on there, bring it to a boil, simmer it for 15 minutes until it soaks up and absorb all of that broth, and then we’ll be ready for the next step. OK, we’re back with our fully cooked quinoa. It’s nice and fluffy now. And when it was still warm, I took some Greek vinaigrette and put it in so that it. would absorb it all and take in that flavor. So we’ve already sort of got a flavorful base, and now comes the fun part. I did a little prep work in the meantime, and that is why this is also a quick and easy recipe, because once you get this on the stove, you can start chopping up and preparing your other ingredients. So what are those ingredients? Well, the first one’s pretty easy garbanzo beans or chickpeas, if that’s what you would like to call them. I just have one can of those and of course I drain them and then rinse them off. And so they’ve been sitting here in this. I’m gonna pour those in. And then next I have two little Persian cucumbers. I’ve also used English cucumbers. I just like them because they’re mostly seedless and I feel like they have a little more texture as well, so I’m gonna pour those in. This also has tons of great color, right? Just looks appetizing. You eat with your eyes first, right? And then you have those little sweet peppers, those mini see. List sweet peppers that you can find in the store. I love those as well. They save so much time because you don’t have to see them and I just chop them up and they’re so pretty. I have an orange one or a yellow one and a red one in there. Then I have some very finely diced red onion. Now if you don’t love the taste of raw onion, you can. Cook it if you’d like. You can soak it in some cold water that sort of takes the harshness out of it sometimes, but I love it. So I just dice it up really small and put in as much as you like or as little as you like. And then just to give it a little tang, I have the pepper and cini that you can get in sort of the tall jars. Well, I chop this up just to make the bites a little bit smaller. I’ve got that. And then what I’m gonna do is add a little spice. So this is the tar and this is a Mediterranean seasoning. You can add whatever seasonings you like, even if it’s just salt and pepper or no seasoning because you’ve already got some of the vinaigrette in there. So I’m just gonna do a little sprinkle of that and then this Greek seasoning all purpose, you’ve probably seen in the store plenty of times I’m gonna put some of that in. And then the very last thing I’m gonna do because I love texture and I love to give it a little crunch, I’ve got some roasted lightly salted pistachios that I’ve also chopped up a little bit. Oh, and of course I can’t forget this feta cheese. So I’m just gonna put some crumbles in here and then we’re gonna mix everything together. And as I mentioned before, I don’t really have exact measurements for everything. You sort of, you know, add with love, with your heart, right? Whatever you want, how much you want. And then look at how this is all coming together. It looks so beautiful and this is a great dish that you could take as a side dish, especially to a summer cookout or grill out. And hopefully people will love it, but I just divide this up then into my meal prep kits, and I have it for lunch during the week. So it is all ready now. You can give it a little taste and see if you want to add a little bit more dressing or a little bit more spice, but I’m gonna trust it at this point and just scoop it into a bowl. So you can get a better look at it, whoop, and spill it everywhere. You know, if you’re not getting messy in the kitchen, you’re not doing something right. OK. That is our finished product. This is the Mediterranean quinoa salad. I hope you give it a try. You’ll have the same lunch as me. Cheers.
Dining and Cooking