Harvest Quinoa Salad

Sweet and savory. Light, yet full of flavour.  This quinoa salad is a tasty combination of harvest flavours with a light lemony vinaigrette dressing.  It was simple to make and well-received, even by people who had never had quinoa before.  I used red quinoa this time.  It has a little more crunch/ nutty flavour to it than the standard quinoa.  I would have liked to do a mix of the two, but red was the only type available at the time in the bulk section of my grocery store.  This makes a great side dish for any type of occasion. (FYI: since I was making this for the ladies at church, I had a few dietary restrictions to accommodate, so I omitted the pecans and used pineapple juice instead of orange.)
[Cook's Note  1: For those of you not familiar with quinoa, it is an ancient grain grown in South America that is chocked full of goodness.  It is not only high in fibre, but also a good source of protein.  It is similar to couscous, in that it absorbs the flavours of whatever it is cooked in, so I always use some sort of broth to cook my quinoa (the type of broth depends on the recipe/ flavours I'm going for).  See my note (*) at the bottom for what I did for this recipe.]
[Cook's Note 2: I learned a great trick when using raw onions in a dish.  To eliminate some of the pungent smell, and overwhelming taste, cut/ chop your onion to desired size for the recipe, then rinse in a sieve under cold water for a minute or two, and drain thoroughly.  This 'softens' the punch of the raw onion, yet retains the onion-y flavour and crunch!]

Harvest Quinoa Salad

Ingredients:

FOR THE SALAD:
5 c. cooked quinoa (see Note Below)
2 whole Granny Smith apples
1 c. red bell pepper
1 small red (or sweet) onion, coarsely chopped
½ c. chopped, toasted pecans (optional) 

1 c. corn-- fresh (cut off cob), frozen (thawed), or canned (drained)
½ c. dried cranberries

FOR THE DRESSING:
zest and juice of 1 lemon
⅓ c. apple cider vinegar
½ c. orange juice (or pineapple juice)
⅓ c. oil (not olive)
⅓ c. honey

 

Directions: 

Note: To make 5 cups cooked quinoa, rinse 2 cups of quinoa in cold water for 1-2 minutes.  Add rinsed quinoa to 4 cups of liquid*.  Bring to a boil.  Cook covered for 7-10 minutes, until grain has 'popped' and is cooked to your taste preference  (I like mine a little crunchy).  Drain and cool. 

While quinoa is cooking, core and chop apples, red pepper and onion. Toast pecans and thaw or drain corn. Mix the dressing ingredients together in a mason jar and give it a good shake.  Once quinoa is cool, add all the ingredients together. Stir in the dressing. Chill for one hour prior to serving. Garnish with fresh parsley or mint (optional).

Keeps well in the fridge for up to 5 days.

[*I used 2 c. apple juice and 2 c. water.  I think it would also taste good to make a corn broth by boiling the corn cobs (if using fresh corn) with a good bit of salt, whole peppercorns, and an onion.]