Summer Quinoa Salad

I have some great summery recipes for you guys this week. I am very excited to share!  They all involve such colorful foods that make for amazing pictures.

So let's get healthy [again].  I will be the first to admit that I have [ever so slightly] fallen off the wagon when it comes to my healthy foods recently.  If you follow my instagram feed, you know exactly what I'm talking about.  But I just have to remind myself that there are so many healthy foods that I can get excited about! Like quinoa.  If you haven't tried quinoa yet, please please please do so now! And I have the perfect recipe to get you started. 

Summer Quinoa Salad with tomatoes and corn. This is delicious stuff.  Very summery and light.  Oh and it makes a ton so you will be eating it for a week.  And let me tell you, I am ok with that.  I think my exact words were "Wow this makes a ton of food, I can bring this for lunch all week.  YAY!!" 

There were a few slight changes that we ended up having to make to the recipe, so let's get started.  I say we because I was attempting to make about 3 different things at the same time last night, so as I was working on another little gem to be shared later, Joel basically made this on his own with my occasional instruction or helpful hint. [Because he is amazing, but we already knew that]

First you'll want to cook your quinoa.  The recipe calls for 2 cups uncooked quinoa, I only used 1 1/2, because that is what we had.  When cooking the quinoa you do a 2:1 water:quinoa ratio.  I have had trouble getting all the water absorbed into the quinoa before so we did 2 3/4 cups water: 1 1/2 cups quinoa. Worked perfectly.  Cook from here according to the package.

While your quinoa is cooking get to work on your veggies.  Chop some shallots,

cut your tomatoes in half,

chiffonade your basil leaves.

Now, the recipe calls for grilled corn, and I was so so so excited about finally getting some corn on the cob this summer.  But no. Apparently the corn gods hate me and decided that it was going to be $5 for 2 ears of corn.  Now that was not going to happen.  It's just the principle of the thing.  So we made do with what we had.  Canned corn.  Then Joel added some spices to it and sauteed it up.  Some red pepper flakes, paprika, and garlic salt, to give it kind of a smokey grilled flavor.

So once you've done that, you'll drain and rinse your cannellini beans, and toss all your veggies together with the quinoa.

It looks amazing already, I know. Next whisk up your sauce mixture.

Then pour it over your quinoa mixture. 

And voila, you have your summer quinoa salad.  This was a great side dish and I can promise you I will be making this one again.  I am so excited to eat it for lunch this week, it will most likely be the highlight of my day.  Sad but true.

Enjoy!