Mediterranean Quinoa Salad

Until last summer we had never eaten or cooked Quinoa.  But now that we have, I’m always on the lookout for good recipes to incorporate more Quinoa into our diet.  And since we eat pie every – single – weekend, we need to eat some light dinners throughout the week.  I knew when I saw this recipe posted by Jenna on her blog Eat Live Run, I would have to make this for dinner soon.  We were not disappointed!  I will make this again and again.  I’m taking leftovers for lunch tomorrow, and looking forward to it.  Quinoa is very filling and will stick with you for several hours.  And it tastes so darn good 🙂

You’ll need Quinoa (red or white), salt, pepper, lemon, Feta cheese, a cucumber, cherry or grape tomatoes, Kalamata olives, oregano, and olive oil.  (I also have rice vinegar in the photo but you don’t need it.  I just got home from the store and hadn’t put it away so it ended up in the photo.)

I only had 1/2 cup of red Quinoa so I used some white we had on hand.  Red is my favorite 🙂

Rinse the Quinoa and put it in a medium saucepan with 2 cups of water.  Bring to a boil and simmer for about 15 minutes until all water is absorbed.  Set aside to cool.

Peel and chop your cucumber.  This was a really big cuke so my salad was heavy on the cucumber.  No worries, we love cucumbers and just planted our cuke seeds in the garden.

Don’t grape tomatoes just scream summer!  I can’t wait until we have them right outside, ready to pick and eat.

Chop your tomatoes and add them to a large bowl with the diced cucumber.

Check the Quinoa and remove from the heat to cool.  These little grains pop open when they’re cooked.  They seem to grow legs.

Also slice some olives and add to the tomato mixture.

Squeeze the juice of 1/2 lemon and add the olive oil to the juice.

Season the veges with salt, pepper and oregano.

Add the Feta cheese.

Add the cooled Quinoa and drizzle with the olive oil and lemon juice.  Toss to combine!

Serve at room temperature or refrigerate until ready to eat.

This makes 4 large main dish servings.  Yum!

1 cup dry Quinoa

2 cups water

2 cups sliced grape or cherry tomatoes

1/2 cup chopped Kalamata Olives

1 whole cucumber, peeled and diced

1 teaspoon dry Oregano

1/2 teaspoon salt (I used very little salt since the olives are salty)

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 whole lemon, juiced

3/4 cup crumbled Feta cheese

Rinse the Quinoa and add to a medium saucepan.  Add the 2 cups of water and bring to a boil.  Cook uncovered for 15 minutes or until the water is absorbed.  Stir and set aside to cool.

Peel and dice a large cucumber.  Chop the grape tomatoes and the olives.  Add them all to a large bowl and toss to combine.  Season the vegetables with salt and pepper and oregano.  Add the cooked and cooled Quinoa, the Feta cheese and drizzle with the olive oil, lemon juice mixture.  Toss and enjoy!  Refrigerate leftovers.

Thanks Jenna for such a great recipe!

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And thank you for stopping by!