Quinoa Salad Every Which Way

I just made a quinoa salad inspired by recipe I am posting below.  I make them weekly and chomp on them for lunch or dinner a few times a week. They are easy to make and you can use whatever is in the fridge/cupboards because quinoa is versatile and mixes well with fruits, nuts, and veggies.  I make my own dressings too and will provide a link below to a website that has several different salad dressing recipes that follow the Dr. Fuhrman lifestyle.

This recipe was taken off the Dinnerwithjulie.com website.

Quinoa Salad with Chickpeas, Feta and Apples

Quinoa Salad with Chickpeas, Feta and Apples

1 cup quinoa, rinsed in a fine sieve

1/4 cup golden or sultana raisins

1 19 oz. (540 mL) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

a big handful of flat-leaf parsley, chopped

1/2 cup crumbled feta (or as much as you want)

1 tart-ish apple, chopped

1/2 cup toasted walnuts or almonds

Dressing:

1/4 cup canola or olive oil

2 Tbsp. rice vinegar or lemon juice

1 tsp. honey

1/4 tsp. curry paste or powder

Cook 1 cup quinoa according to package directions (or there are directions here); dump into a wide salad bowl and set aside to cool. (Tip: add the raisins as it cools – the raisins will plump up as they absorb any excess moisture.) Add the chickpeas, parsley, feta and apple and drizzle with dressing. (To make the dressing: shake all the ingredients up in a jar.) Toss, then sprinkle with toasted walnuts or almonds right before serving.

Serves 4.

Here is my version of Quinoa Salad:

I added baby kale, avocado, mango, raisins, raw sunflower seeds, soy beans,  feta cheese, heart of palm, cherry tomatoes, garbanzo beans, cucumber.  I used a vinaigrette dressing that I got off the Healthy Girl Kitchen Blogspot (Link below).

http://healthygirlskitchen.blogspot.com/2011/09/big-list-of-no-oil-salad-dressings.html