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Last Updated on December 7, 2021
Recipe for healthy quinoa salad with pecans, cranberries and a surprise dressing.
Quinoa as a Pesach food has become popular lately. This recipe (gluten free) went down well with my vegan guests and it’s going to be on my Yom HaAtzmaut annual BBQ menu too.
Ingredients
- 1 cup uncooked quinoa
- 1/3 cup whole dried cranberries
- 1/3 cup coarsely crushed pecans
For the dressing
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 medium orange, juiced
- zest of 1/2 an orange
- 1 tablespoon honey or agave nectar (silan – date syrup – will also work)
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- salt and pepper, to taste
- Fruits and vegetables in season
- Herbs and spices of the Mediterranean kitchen
- Know your beef cuts
- Fish varieties – Hebrew English and transliterations
- Kashkeval, Bulgarit, Cheddar, Tal HaEmek – there is a cheese just for you
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 170 degrees C. Place pecans on a baking sheet and toast for 6-8 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside to cool. While they’re toasting you can start preparing the quinoa.
- To cook quinoa: Rinse quinoa with cold water in mesh strainer until all the bubbles have disappeared. This is the most important step if you don’t want your quinoa to be bitter. I used a local supermarket house-brand of quinoa and it needed 4 good rinses with a few minutes of standing time between each rinse.
- In a medium saucepan, bring 2 cups of water to a boil. Add in quinoa and bring mixture to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to low and let simmer for 15 minutes or until quinoa has absorbed all of the water. Remove from heat and fluff quinoa with fork; place in large bowl and set aside to cool.
- To make the dressing: Whisk together olive oil, apple cider vinegar, orange juice, orange zest, honey, turmeric (sounds crazy, but it works), thyme.
- Pour the dressing all over quinoa and add cranberries (leave whole – don’t be tempted to chop them up). Stir to combine. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to allow flavors to absorb into quinoa. Add salt and pepper to taste. Before serving fold in coarsely crushed, toasted pecans. Makes 6 servings
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