First of all, we have some super, super exciting news. After nearly a year of planning, planning, testing, cooking, writing, photographing, agonizing, organizing, not sleeping, and stressing, we are officially done with the manuscript for our second book! There’s lots and lots of work ahead for us, but this is such a huge, monumental milestone and we’re so grateful to all of you who have stuck with us, been patient through weeks of sweet treats (because we were busy writing actual dinner recipes for the book), and have given us hope that someone will buy the next book. We love you guys and can’t ever thank you enough for being the best blog readers ever.
In the last year or so, I’ve kind of been having a love affair with quinoa. It’s so versatile and delicious and healthy. It’s quicker-cooking than brown rice, but you can use it in so many of the same ways that we’ve started using it quite a bit instead of rice.
One of my favorite ways to eat quinoa is in salads (like this one or this one). I love this particular salad because it has pomegranate arils, which I love, but I can only eat in small quantities because the juice hurts my teeth (yes, I’m 90 years old) and smooth, creamy bites of avocado. You’ll need cooked quinoa, seeds from 1 pomegranate, about 1/2 of a red onion, 1/2 of a cucumber, 1-2 avocados, a can of drained and rinsed garbanzo or great northern beans, about 1/4 cup chopped cilantro or parsley, and kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. For the dressing, you’ll need juice from an orange, lemon, and lime, a clove of garlic, a little bit of pure olive oil (extra-virgin is a little too strong here, at least for my taste), a bit of sugar or other sweetener, and a little more kosher salt.
Place the beans, peeled/seeded/diced cucumber, minced red onion, cilantro or parsley, and pomegranate arils in a large bowl…
and toss with your hands until combined.
Add the chilled quinoa and toss to combine. To make the dressing, whisk together some freshly squeezed orange juice, lemon juice, lime juice, 2-3 teaspoons of sugar (or honey, agave, or Splenda if you prefer), 2 tablespoons oil, and about 1/2 heaping teaspoon of kosher salt. Drizzle it over the salad and chill until ready to serve. When you’re ready to serve, add 1-2 diced avocados (depending on the size of and love for avocados) and serve. This can either be a light meal or served as a side dish.
Citrus-Pomegranate Quinoa Salad
Recipe by Our Best Bites
Ingredients:
1/2 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, and diced
1/2 medium red onion, minced
1/4 cup fresh minced cilantro or parsley
1 cup pomegranate arils
1 can garbanzo beans or great northern beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup quinoa
2 cups water or chicken (or vegetable) broth
1-2 avocados, cut into small cubes (depending on how much you love avocado and how big the avocados are)
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Dressing:
1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (about 1 medium orange)
1 1/2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 1/2 medium juicy lemon)
1 1/2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice (about 1/2 medium juicy lime)
2-3 teaspoons sugar, honey, agave, or Splenda (just add it to taste)
2 tablespoons pure olive oil
1/2 heaping teaspoon kosher salt
A few cracks of freshly ground black pepper
1 clove minced garlic
Instructions:
Whisk together dressing ingredients and set aside.
Combine diced cucumber, minced onion, chopped cilantro, pomegranate seeds, and drained and rinsed beans in a large salad bowl. Toss with quinoa. Drizzle the dressing over the mixture and toss to combine, then chill until ready to serve. Before serving, add diced avocado and eat immediately. Makes 6-8 main dish servings and 10-12 side dish servings.
Questions & Reviews
I made this last night for a friend and myself. It is delicious. I did feel like it needed a little more zip so I added a splash of rice vinegar.
Question: what is the water/chicken broth for? For cooking the quinoa? Thanks – looks delish!!
Yes, for cooking the quinoa!
I think I already left a comment on this post about how much I like this salad, but I just made it again a few days ago and I really have to say that it has become one of my favorite dishes of all time. I would eat it for every meal! Actually, I do eat it for every meal!
When I can’t get pomegranates in the summer I just add mangoes instead. And if I want to make it into a more filling dinner I use some rotisserie chicken.
Most of my family likes it as well. Considering there are 8 of us, that’s a pretty great accomplishment! Thanks for all you do!
I don’t know if you have a pomegranate tutorial on your site somewhere already, but I just found this video that shows how to completely deseed a pomegranate in 10 seconds: http://lifehacker.com/5895852/deseed-a-pomegranate-in-10-seconds-using-a-wooden-spoon. Pretty cool!
Making this tonight for Thanksgiving. For 150 people. Yes, that is not a typo! I forgot to eat dinner, so after I had chopped and cooked the quinoa, I tossed a bowl of this delishisness without the beans and avocado (I have to travel 3 hours with this. I will put them in when I get there. Without two of my fave ingredients, this was AMAZING! I can’t wait to share it tomorrow.
Love, love this salad. Love quinoa. No pomegranates this time of year but I did have fresh rasberries (from Costco) added them instead. Delicious!!!
Love you guys!
Finally made this today as a side to your crispy coconut chicken strips from your cookbook … what a great meal. This is probably my favorite of your quinoa salads, love the citrus dressing 🙂 Just wish I would have made it sooner so I could get the pomegranate … couldn’t find one anywhere so I just did the craisin substitution that was mentioned in the comments, still great. Many thanks to the both of you for creating these amazing meals!! I always know the food will turn out great if it’s one of your recipes … and SOooo excited for your next cookbook!!
This is DELICIOUS. Thank you!