Keen for Quinoa and Unruly for Tabouli

 

Time for another weird ingredient!  This tabouli recipe from Bon Appetit uses quinoa.

Key Noah?

Dr. Quin, Oh a medicine woman?

No, say it with me:  KEEN-WAH.

Quinoa is a type of seed, but it’s generally used like a grain.  Today we are making a quinoa tabouli salad.  Now…what is tabouli?  It has many different variations (as well as spellings), but it’s a Middle Eastern salad typically made with bulgur, tomatoes, parsley, and mint.  We’re using quinoa instead of bulgur and also adding some cucumber, onion, and radish (to make it extra crunchy).

Here’s a close up of the red quinoa seeds.  There are many different types of quinoa, but the most common ones are red, white, and black.  We actually ended up doing a mix of red and white quinoa because we didn’t have enough of the red stuff.

First step is to cook the quinoa in boiling water until softened (about 15 minutes).

Here is a lemon vinaigrette to dress the salad.  It’s simply lemon juice, garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper. 

   

Some fresh herbs from our garden:  mint and parsley.

Some lovely cherry tomatoes.

   

Crunchy stuff:  cucumber and scallions

   

Red stuff for color:  radishes and onion

Let’s get this party started!

Everything gets mixed together.  You can eat it immediately, but it’s better if you let it sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes so that the flavors can meld together.  It’s a delightfully refreshing summer salad!