The fact that quinoa itself is gluten free makes preparing a gluten free quinoa salad very easy indeed. This is one of the many reasons for this grain’s popularity. It is so easy to add things to quinoa and end up with a nutritious and satisfying meal It can be ready in minutes. What you add to your salad will depend on what you have in your garden or fridge to put in. Here is a simple idea for one salad recipe
Ingredients
1 cup of quinoa
2 cups of water
1 large carrot
1 sweet pepper
½ cup sweetcorn
8 small radishes
Low fat Mayonnaise or Extra Virgin Olive Oil To Dress
Method
Firstly rinse the quinoa under a tap to ensure the saponin coating is completely removed. Some times this will not be needed as it comes pre rinsed. If it foams under a tap then you need to rinse the foam off. If you do not then the salad will taste slightly bitter. Then boil it in the water for 10 minutes or until all the water is absorbed.
Allow it to cool for an hour.
Slice or grate the carrot
Rinse the sweetcorn seeds
Chop or slice the sweet pepper
Chop up the radishes
Now mix in all the ingredients with the cooled quinoa and add your preferred dressing. If you are serving your salad immediately then the dressing is optional. You will find that it keeps better in the fridge if you use a salad dressing of some kind. So you can make double and use it over 2 days.
You can serve your salad with meat slices or simply eat it on its own. As it is a complete protein it makes a completely nutritious meal on its own. I nearly always place the quinoa salad on a bed of salad leaves or raw spinach. You can also top it with a sprinkling of raw quinoa sprouts making it doubly nutritious.
This is just one example of a gluten free quinoa salad. What you can do is make it up with your own choice of gluten free salad vegetables. You can also use seeds and legumes such as sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, chick peas, haricot beans and freshly shucked garden peas. I also use walnuts and almonds but for people on a gluten free diet these can sometimes be a trigger for other allergies. You will know what you can eat and sort out your salad ingredients accordingly.
Either way I hope I have shown you how easy it is to knock up a gluten free salad using quinoa in a few minutes that is good for your health
