quinoa tabbouleh

The baby of our department turned 30 this weekend, so the department decided to have a pot luck to celebrate.  We hold a pot luck to celebrate almost anything. In fact one of the most important questions when interviewing for a position is "what is your speciality for pot lucks?"( Not really but it should be). I had said I was going to bring a salad, but  I was away on the weekend so I wanted to make something that would not take me very long and would hold well with out going soggy.

Originally I decided to make tabbouleh, but the only bulgher wheat I could find was very course and so I decided to make the same salad but substitute quinoa for the grain.

A close up of raw quinoa

Quinoa is about the texture of cous cous when it is raw.  I cooked it according to the package, boiling for 15 minutes then steaming for a further 15.

Close up of cooked quinoa

I made a dressing of 1 part olive oil 1 part lemon juice a grated garlic clove and some salt, and added that to the cooled quinoa and put in to the fridge over night.

In a large salad bowl I combined cut up cucumber, tomato and green onion

Then I chopped a large bunch of curly parsley and a little mint and put that in a plastic bag and placed that in the same salad bowl until just before serving.

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I took the 3 ingredients independently and mixed together at the last moment so that the vegetables did not get soggy.

It was a good salad very lemony and fresh, but I might have missed the crunch of bulger wheat. This was a very healthy salad, and in fact could have been a vegetarian main course.