Southwest Quinoa Salad

I love Southwest flavours and I'm always trying to find more salads that encorporate those flavours.  Here's a really delicious and healthy one featuring quinoa (from where else? Pinterest: here).  I've started buying my quinoa at Costco- 4 lbs (or 1.8 kg) for $10.  Let me know if you have found a better deal.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup dry quinoa, rinsed
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 3/4 cup water
• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 avocado, chopped into chunks
• handful cherry tomatoes, halfed (or some diced regular tomato)
• 1/2 red onion, diced (I find raw red onion too aggressive for my taste, so I substituted green onion)
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped into chunks
• small handful cilantro, diced
• 2 limes, juiced
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 small clove garlic, minced
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1/4-1/2 tsp on chili powder, optional

Directions:

1. Warm the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Once it’s hot add the rinsed quinoa and toast for about 2-3 minutes until it starts smelling nutty and lovely. Add water, stir once, cover, and simmer on low with a lid on for 15-20 minutes. 
2. Transfer cooked quinoa to a bowl and fluff.
   
   

   

   Cooked, fluffed quinoa

3. Chop veggies and make dressing. Prepare the dressing by combining the lime juice, oil, cumin, garlic and salt/pepper. Whisk it aggressively. Adjust seasoning as necessary.
   
   
   
   
   
   
4.  Add all the remaining ingredients, including the dressing and beans, and mix. Adjust seasoning if necessary. Serve with tortilla chips.  We also sprinkled cheese on top, but if you omit that it's vegan friendly.  It's also gluten free- our tortilla chips were made from corn.  If you're not concerned about the vegan label it's great as a side to some grilled protein as well.
   
   
   
   
   

(We got 2 servings plus my 10 month old daughter's serving, plus 2 more left over servings...which we may have eaten later that night.  So much for a ready to go lunch...)

HUSBAND AND BABY APPROVED!