Quinoa Salad with Tomato & Basil

Tune in to get inspired to plant your own garden and make this salad!

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We learned from Karin Velez of Just Grow Something Podcast that tomato and basil plants are great companions. Plant them together and then when you harvest, make this delicious, gluten-free salad to showcase their home grown flavours!

Prep Time: 10 min

Cook time: 30 min

Cooling time : 1 hr

Yield:

Ingredients

Quinoa

• 1 cup uncooked quinoa

• 2 cup water

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 30g butter

Fresh Veggies

• 8 oz cherry tomatoes, halved

• 1/2 cup fresh basil, sliced into strips

• 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced

Dressing

• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

• 1/4 cup olive oil

• 2 tbsp creamed honey

• 1 tbsp dijon mustard

Directions

1. Begin by melting the butter in a medium saucepan. Add in rinsed quinoa and heat over medium-heat, stirring the quinoa for 5 min.

2. Add in the salt and water. Bring to boil and then cover and reduce heat to simmer.

3. Allow the quinoa to cook until all the water has been absorbed. Remove from heat and let cool before adding dressing and fresh ingredients.

4. Prepare the fresh ingredients, washing cutting and slicing the tomatoes, basil and onion.

5. In a mason jar, combine the vinegar, olive oil, creamed honey and dijon mustard. Seal with a lid and shake to combine.

6. In a large bowl combine the quinoa and fresh ingredients. Drizzle the dressing over all and mix thoroughly. Serve and enjoy!

Zhuzh it up!

• Feel free to play around with the mustard and honey. Sometimes I substitute in maple syrup and honey mustard or grainy mustard!

This amazing recipe was adapted from Chef Michael Smith's Back to Basics Cookbook