A little refreshing change up from my dessert posts!
Quinoa is the ultimate health food. It started out as an unknown grain and became this trendy phenomenon in the food blog world, and the world in general. Okay maybe that’s a stretch…do they have quinoa in Europe yet?! Doubtful…Places like Italy stay true to their fresh bread and pastas, atleast in the old school parts they do. When I visited Italy I literally only ate wine, cheese, pasta, pizza, gelato and more wine and gelato. And I realize you can’t “eat” wine but I am pretty sure I consumed enough to be factored into as a meal.
Here in America, my cheesy carbs got traded in for quinoa. Because America is trying ever so hard to get healthier and quinoa is helping out with that. Trader Joe’s has three different types, that’s when you know it’s taking over. Trader Joe’s doesn’t mess around
So in my efforts to give into the “take over” of quinoa I decided to give the grain a little makeover. In all honesty I actually really like quinoa. More so than rice. Sticky white rice just isn’t my thing. It’s bland, tastless and well, sticky for my taste. Quinoa is cool though; it has a nice little texture and I really dig it.
In order to make quinoa even cooler than it already is, let’s add some apple vinagrette to the mix. This vinagrette quinoa was inspired by Giada De Laurentiis. I have her Feel Good Cookbook which has tons of great recipes. She had an apple waldorf salad that is made with couscous and stuffed into lettuce shells.
I twisted up this recipe by using super cool quinoa in place of couscous, and adding more of it to make it a heartier meal! I also made a few changes to her apple vinagrette. Her version was good, but it needed a little more sweeter apple-ish flavor for my taste. I turned to the my ever so delicious apple butter. This vinagrette is easy, all you need is:
Apple Cider Vinegar
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Apple Butter
Maple Syrup
Sea Salt + Pepper
This can make a great lunch or yummy addition to your next summer bbq. The salad overall is extremely refreshing served cold with freshly chopped apples, grapes and almonds tossed in. So easy yet so tasty. My kinda quinoa.
Apple Vinaigrette Quinoa Salad
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
Ingredients
- 1 cup quinoa, uncooked
- 2 cups vegetable broth
- 2 medium gala apples, chopped
- 1 cup chopped red grapes (seedless)
- 1/3 cup chopped almonds
Vinnagrette
- 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 2 Tbsp maple syrup
- 4 Tbsp apple butter
- Sea salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Place the vegetable broth in a pot and cook the quinoa over medium heat. Once the quinoa has absorbed all the liquid and is fully cooked (should take about 15 minutes) set aside and allow to cool.
- Whisk together your vinaigrette ingredients until compeltely combined. Mix in your chopped apples, grapes and nuts into the quinoa. Drizzle the vinaigrette over the quinoa and toss until well coated.
Notes
- Serve quinoa salad cold and store in the fridge for up to a week.