Quinoa Spring Salad

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...I've only recently begun to experiment with the grains that have become popular in restaurants and are featured on some of the more health oriented blog sites. Quinoa, usually in salad form, appears on the menus of most restaurants in my area. We've had a week of heavy, high caloric eating, and I thought today would be a good day to begin to work with some recipes for quinoa salads I've been saving. To be honest, I chose this one as ground zero because I had all of the ingredients on hand. The salad is simple to assemble, and I'm delighted to tell you that the Silver Fox, a committed carnivore, actually ate and liked it. I found the recipe on allrecipes.com and made no changes to there ingredients list. If you like salads with a hint of lemon lurking in the background, I know you will like this one. It is easy and inexpensive to make and I've added it to my semi-permanent recipe rotation. Do give it a try. Here is how it's made.

Quinoa Spring Salad...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite courtesy of Allrecipes

Ingredients
Salad:
1-1/2 cups water
3/4 cup quinoa
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 bunch fresh asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
4 ounces crumbled feta cheese
1/3 cup toasted slivered almonds
2 green onions, thinly sliced, or to taste
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
1 lemon, zested
Dressing:
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
1 clove garlic, minced
1-1/2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions
1) Pour water into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Add quinoa and salt, stir, cover saucepan with a lid, and reduce heat to low. Simmer mixture until quinoa is tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove saucepan from heat, let quinoa rest for 5 minutes, then transfer quinoa to a bowl to cool.
2) Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add asparagus and cook uncovered until tender but still crisp, about 2 to 3 minutes. Drain quickly, then immediately immerse asparagus in cold water to stop the cooking process. Drain.
3) Stir asparagus, feta cheese, almonds, green onions, parsley, thyme, and lemon zest into quinoa.
4) Whisk lemon juice, olive oil, honey, garlic, Dijon mustard, and black pepper together in a bowl until dressing is smooth. Pour dressing over quinoa mixture and stir gently to combine. Yield: 6 servings.

                    

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