Delicious and Nutritious

Seriously, this little salad is delish and nutrish!! I was just home for a week and collected quite a few recipes from my mammers - but this is the only one that didn't include several sticks of butter and or cream cheese...Don't worry, those will be posted soon as well! I made this Quinoa Taco Salad on a whim last night and CANNOT wait for lunch today!

My mom quilts with her friend Elaine quite regularly at Elaine's house (Elaine has all the fancy machines). And my mom has come home, not only with wonderful projects, but with a handsome collection of recipes from Elaine. This is one of the tasty little delights...she also has this amazing bread salad that I will have to add soon!

Quinoa Taco Salad

Elaine Miller and my mom ~ serves 4 to 6 depending on how hungry you are!

Ingredients

1 cup cooked quinoa (I buy my quinoa at Trader Joe's; I will have to find a new source when I move to Kansas...like the US Postal Service and my mom...I cooked 1/2 cup quinoa in 1 cup water and I had plenty. In fact, it made about 1 3/4 cup and I just added all of it)

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 red onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp chili powder

dash cayenne pepper

1/2 each red, yellow and green bell pepper (I just used one full yellow and 1/2 red. Obviously you can go crazy and add as much pepper as you want!)

1 15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed

3/4 cup tomatoes, diced (I did about 1 package of cherry tomatoes)

2 limes (I ended up only using one)

Salt and pepper to taste

6-8 ounces baby spinach

1 bunch cilantro

1/3 cup cheddar or feta

1 avocado, diced

Instructions

Add seasoning to water when cooking quinoa. (I'm not sure what seasoning the recipe is referring to - I didn't add a thing and I didn't think anything was missing. If I had an open can/container of chicken broth, I would have cooked the quinoa in chicken broth.)

Heat evoo in saute pan over medium heat. Add onion, cook for 3-5 minutes. Add garlic, cumin, oregano, chili powder, cayenne and peppers. Saute 2 minutes more. Remove from heat. Stir in the black beans, tomatoes and juice of 1 lime. Stir in quinoa. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Chill. (I didn't make it enough in advance, so ours was slightly warm and yummy!)

Roughly cut baby spinach into strips. (Okay, I thought this step wasn't necessary, until I tried to eat the quinoa mixture - it was a pain with the larger leaves. I'd recommend NOT skipping this step!) Remove about 1 cup of cilantro leaves, wash, dry and toss with spinach. (I chopped mine and just sprinkled it on top of the feta.) Divide mixture among 4 salad plates. Top with scoop of quinao salad. Top with cheese and diced avocado. Garnish with lime.

Bon Appetit!