Tabbouleh inspired Quinoa

Mmmmmmm, I love, love love, quinoa and tabbouleh so I decided to combine the two into one delicious meal. Yumaliciousness!

1 1/2 cups quinoa

1 bunch parsley

1 bunch mint

juice and zest of 1 lemon

1/2 of a red onion, diced

1 cucumber, peeled and diced

3-4 green onions, diced

2-3 small tomatoes, seeded and finely diced

1/3 cup olive oil

1 tsp salt

The cast of characters. If you haven’t cooked with quinoa before, you can usually find it in the rice section of your supermarket. You can get it packaged in a bag like this one or look in the bulk bins. Buying it from the bulk bins will save you a ton of money which is what I usually do. This bag just happened to be on sale.

Here is the quinoa up close before it is cooked. You can use this as a much healthier rice substitute too. It has a slightly nutty flavor and is full of healthy vitamins. Put 1 1/2 cups of quinoa into about 2 quarts of water. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 14 minutes then rinse with cold water. While you are waiting for your quinoa to cook, get the rest of your yummies together.

Throw the parsley, mint, green onions, olive oil, salt, lemon juice, and zest right into your food processor – stems and all. Why waste the stems? They taste just as delicious as the leafy part and you are chopping it up so small you won’t notice them anyway. You could also do this by hand, just be sure to chop it very finely.

Look, all chopped up and not a stem in sight. The aroma is delightful and making me hungry already.

No, the ingredients did not call for worms. I am showing this worm to stress the importance of washing all fruits, veggies, and herbs thoroughly. My packaged mint said it was clean and ready to go but this little fella was living in there. The best way to wash leafy things is to fill your sink with cold water, separate the leaves, submerge them, and wish them right around for a few minutes.

There’s that tasty quinoa all cooked and ready to eat. When it’s done it will look like there are little “sprouts” coming out.

Put all of your chopped veggies that you were prepping while the quinoa was cooking into a bowl. At least I hope you were prepping these and not playing with your worm. Mix it all together and it is ready to eat.

This recipe is so good that I always have to eat a little as soon as I make it – I can’t wait. Sometimes I will even eat it for breakfast and lunch. Make up a big batch, throw it in the fridge and eat it all week for lunch.