Quinoa Salad with Adzuki Beans

Quinoa. My favourite Q food.   Not only does it offer up a food for the letter Q, it also saves me from writing about quiche!

Quinoa is a tricky grain to successfully prepare.  Over cook it, and it’s mushy; undercook and it’s crunchy. It definitely needs double the water to grain, yet it can more than triple in volume when cooking.  This recipe calls for 1 and 1/2 cups cooked quinoa, so you’ll need about 1/2 cup of quinoa cooked in 1 cup of water.

To cook the quinoa, measure it, then rinse it (I buy bulk organic grains, so they always need to be rinsed before cooking).  Then set the pot on the stove, uncovered, bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook 7 – 10 minutes.  Some people recommend bringing the water to a boil, then adding the quinoa, and reducing to a simmer for about 15 minutes.  Whichever way you choose to cook it, you’ll know it’s cooked when the grains start to pop open and the little tails become visible.

You also notice this calls for raw chard.  If you can’t imagine eating chard raw, use baby kale or arugula. You want a dry leafy green for this salad, rather than a wet one – iceberg would not work; romain would work in a pinch.

Toss together:

• 1 1/2 cups cooked Quinoa
• 3/4 cup cooked adzuki beans
• 2 cloves garlic finely diced, or minced
• pinch of dried chili pepper flakes
• salt ‘n pepper to taste
• 1 T extra virgin olive oil
• 1 sweet bell pepper, diced
• 5 medium red tomatoes, diced

Then pile your mixed beans and quinoa on the greens:

• 4 cups swiss chard, kale or arugula – raw.