Marinated Quinoa Salad

Quinoa comes from seeds of a South American amaranth plant.

Quinoa comes from seeds of a plant in the amaranth family native to South America, where it has a long history of food usage. Seeds have high protein content of 16.2 percent and are eaten either cooked or sprouted.

Preparing Quinoa

Combine one cup of quinoa with two cups of water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook for about 15 minutes. The seeds will become transparent instead of white. Or sprout uncooked seeds as you would beans.

Preparing Marinade

Marinades consist of acidic materials such as vinegar or lemon juice with vegetable oils, spices, herbs and seasonings. Mix so the oil emulsifies with the other ingredients and pour over the quinoa. A number of marinades are possible.

Lemon Juice Marinades

Lemon and lime juice, tamari, olive oil and garlic combine into a marinade for sprouted quinoa. After soaking, the mixture is combined with mint, tomatoes, onion, cucumber and red pepper. Tabouli can be made with cooked quinoa instead of bulgur wheat, where the marinade is lemon juice and olive oil.

Vinegar marinades

Combine various vinegars--balsamic, wine, cider, or flavored--with oils such as walnut, sesame, olive, or mustard to flavor quinoa before adding it to salads. Mark Reinfeld gives a recipe in "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Eating Raw" for shoyu and balsamic vinegar marinade used on sprouted quinoa.

References

• Quinoa Corporation: Home
• Crazy Sexy Life: Marinated Quinoa Salad
• "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Eating Raw"; Mark Reinfeld et al.; 2008