Summer Quinoa Salad || Eatz

It's night time!

Sorry for not posting this past week. It's been hectic! Last week was the last week for the students at the school that I work at. It was sad to hear the students say their last byes before they left for their summer holidays. This week is my last week at the school - finishing up on reports, cleaning up the resource room, last minute staff meetings, etc.

Tomorrow, a fellow staff member (who's also my Grade 1 teacher) invited us to her and her husband's place for a potluck. I'm not a fan of potlucks. Now don't get me wrong; I love the different food that people bring, sharing it with one another and spending time chatting away until the sun goes down. My only problem about potlucks is my indecisiveness to pick what to bring. This time I was very good about this and knew exactly what I could bring. This is an original recipe by moi! I've made this salad a couple times but I usually made just enough for two lunch portions. I eyeballed it and it was just the right size for a potluck!

I love this salad! It's light and healthy tasting (but it doesn't taste like cardboard)!

All right, looks like I got all my ingredients. There are a few things that are missing in the picture but you get the gist. Let's get cooking!

1. Heat up 4 cups water in a large sauce pan. Add a dash of salt to help it boil and add some flavour to the quinoa. Once water bubbles, add quinoa into water and let it re-boil. When you see the water bubble, turn down the heat to medium and put a lid over it. Check it every so often to make sure that it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. Quinoa ratio is 1:4. For every 1 cup of uncooked quinoa, 4 cups of cooked rice will be produces. So make sure your sauce pan is big enough to handle 8 cups!  It's ready when all the water is absorbed and the quinoa is fluffy. Turn off heat and take it off the stove to cool down. Set aside.

2. While the quinoa is cooking, prepare your edamame beans and cucumbers. For the edamame beans, I suggest you buy the individual beans in a bag in the frozen aisle. Mine are from Costco; they were on sale but they needed to be de-podded. It you have the individual beans, warm them up in the microwave and set aside. If you got the ones in the microwave baggies, follow the instructions on the box. Once heated, set aside to cool down. Then get shucking! Set aside. I wanted the cucumber to be small cubes; just big enough to get a little crunch in each bit. Choose your way of cutting; as long as they are the size of edamame beans.

3. Your cilantro is up next! Make sure you clean your cilantro thoroughly! You don't want bits of dirt in your salad. Best way to clean them is to soak them into a bath of cold water. This lets the cilantro swim in the water and the dirt to sink. Shake out the excess water. I don't like a lot of stem so I cut some of it off. Coarsely chop cilantro and set aside.

4. Heat up a pan and add 1 Tbs of extra virgin olive oil. Once the oil is hot, add in your edamame beans and the cranberries. Lightly sauté and season with salt and pepper. Take off the stove before it becomes mushy and yellow. We want it to keep it's crunch and vibrant shade of green!

5. With a large bowl, mix all your components together. Add in 5 Tbs of extra virgin olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Mix well. Best served chilled. I put mine in the fridge overnight before serving. And voilà!

Hope you like this recipe! Try it out and leave a comment!

Good Eatz!

- V