Quinoa is one of the most healthy grains in this world 🙂
Quinoa is gluten-free, high in protein and one of the few plant foods that contain sufficient amounts of all nine essential amino acids. It is also high in fiber, magnesium, B vitamins, iron, potassium, calcium, phosphorus, vitamin E and various beneficial antioxidants.
I love this salad on any given day and the best thing is my kids eat it all up when I serve with a creamy guacamole.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup quinoa
5 Cloves of chopped garlic
1 can of black beans
1 small onion chopped
1 jalapeno chopped -optional
1/2 cup chopped zucchini
1/2 tsp turmeric
salt to taste
1/2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp cayenne
Evoo
For Guacamole:
1/2 onion chopped
1 avocado mashed up (save the outer skin of the avocados)
lemon juice from 1 lemon
Cilantro for garnish
salt to taste
Preparation:
For Avocado Salad Boats:
This is such a forgiving recipe that you can add any veggies you like to it. Take a pan and add 1 tsp of EVOO and transfer the chopped garlic, onion, jalapeno and zucchini. Mix well and saute with salt, turmeric and curry powder. Add in the rinsed black beans and mix well for about 3 minutes. Add 1/2 cup quinoa and toast for 3-4 minutes and mix. Now add 1 cup of water to the pan with all the ingredients and let it cook uncovered for about 10 minutes till all water evaporates. If quinoa seems uncooked, add another 1/2 cup water and let it cook uncovered. You want to cover it for the last 3 minutes with a lid so the quinoa turns out fluffy. Keep aside.
Cooked Quinoa with black beans, jalapenos, onions and zucchini
For Guacamole:
Take a bowl. Add mashed guacamole with salt and lemon juice and mix well to a creamy pulp. Then transfer chopped onions, salt to taste and garnish with Cilantro.
Plating:
For plating, transfer quinoa salad into the outer skins of avocados and place these boats with guacamole.
Its been snowing all day, and I never complain since those are the days I spend some quality time with my husband and kids. I think the snow storm compels everyone to be bound home for safety, roads get nasty also so we all rather stay home safely unless it is something really important!!!
What a nice compelling way to bond with family? LOL! Today is such a day- my husband ended up working from home and he ‘s always attending calls and in meetings all day long. I decided to start the day late with brunch. So the menu was Homemade Waffles with Strawberries and syrup with powdered sugar dusting like the snow!!!! Then I made my husband’s favorite masala scrambled eggs with toast.
We watched a movie together and now its dinner time! I decided to recreate the Guacamole that is served with tortilla chips at California Pizza Kitchen under the Short eats menu for 5$. I have to be honest- I simply love it and am left craving for moreeeeeeeeeeeee.
I checked my refrigerator and had all the ingredients to recreate the recipe and the will, ofcourse:) so decided to go for it!
Ingredients
Avocado-1
Jicama- 1/2
Red/ Orange Bell Pepper-1/2
Black beans- 1/4 cup
Onion-1/2
Jalapeno-1
Sweet Corn- 1/2 cup
Lemon Pepper- 1/2 tsp
Garlic powder-1/2 tsp
Cumin powder-1/2 tsp
Lemon-1/2
Black pepper coarsely ground powder- 1/4 tsp
Cilantro leaves for garnish
Preparation:
I start by dicing Onion, Jicama, Bell pepper finely. I use frozen sweet corn, so I let water boil and thaw it by letting it sit in the boiling water for about 5 minutes or so. After 5 min’s, transfer the corn to a bowl of cold water. Then I take a bowl, peel the avocado skin, take all the avocado pulp and transfer in the bowl. I add all the spices, salt to taste and mix it as I mash the avocado well to incorporate all the ingredients together. Then I squeeze half a lemon and mix the lemon juice with mashed avocado. Add diced onions, jicama, bell pepper, jalapeno. Mix well. Transfer the corn and black beans at this point. Mix again and garnish with cilantro leaves. Enjoy!
Let me know if you liked this recipe.
Thanks and as always with much love from my kitchen to yours……
