Seasonal Vegetable and Whole Grain Salad Recipe

Hi, I'm Louisa Shafia, and I'm one of Rachael Ray's Buddies on eHow.com. Today, I'm going to show you how to make a great, one-pot meal. This is a salad that features grains and beans. So, the first thing I did was I cooked off some quinoa. This is a great whole grain. It's gluten-free, it's really high in protein, it's got a mild taste. And, this is what I'm using today, it's one of my favorite grains, but you could use any whole grain. You could use millet, brown rice, barley, wheat berries, whatever you want. And then, I also cooked off a bean. These are chickpeas, also my favorite bean. Again, you could use any bean you want, kidney beans, black beans, lentils. So, now I have this nice protein base for my salad. And then, I'm going to make a really simple vinaigrette, and throw in a bunch of vegetables. That's the main idea, here. So, I'll start by making my vinaigrette. I'm not going to measure anything. I'm just going to put in some olive oil, just kind of eyeball it. Some white wine vinegar. You can use any vinegar you like, I would just err on the side of starting with just a little bit of vinegar, and then taste it and add more if you need it. I'm going to put in some Dijon mustard. This is really great to add to a vinaigrette, it gives it sort of some body. And, I'm going to put a little bit of salt, and some pepper. Just whisk this around, right in my salad bowl. Okay. So, now I'm going to add some of this quinoa that I cooked off, and this is really nice and fluffy. This is exactly how you want your whole grains to be, dry and fluffy. Okay, I'm going to put in my chickpeas. These look great. Now, I have a whole bunch of colorful vegetables. So, first thing is, I cooked off some diced red beets. Then, I have some raw carrots. This can be a mix of raw and cooked vegetables, whatever you want. It's really whatever you have around in your fridge, whatever's seasonal. Here are some sliced radishes. I've got some scallions. As far as I'm concerned, you always want to have something from the onion or garlic family in whatever you're cooking. Otherwise, it won't have a lot of flavor. I'm going to put in some oil-cured olives. These are really delicious. I just had them around, so I'm adding them. I have some arugula, this'll add a little bit of pepperiness, a little bite. And, of course, these are a very healthy, leafy green, which you always want to have in your salad. So, this looks good to go. I'm going to give this a toss. And, you can see this is filled with all different kinds of colors and textures. You can't go wrong if you have a whole variety of colors and textures like this. And again, you can use anything you want, anything that's in your kitchen. This looks beautiful. For my last finishing touch, I'm just going to add some crunch with some toasted pumpkin seeds. Again, this is a little bit more protein, a little extra fat to give this some more flavor. But, it's healthy fat. So, this is my beautiful one-pot meal. This is great for lunch, for dinner, really for any time of year, and it looks delicious. I'm Louisa Shafia, thanks for joining me. Check me out again on eHow.com.