Quinoa Salad with Farm Fresh Vegetables, Dried Cranberries, Toasted Walnuts and a Lime-Cilantro Dressing

Last month we signed up for a CSA with Full Circle Farms here in Carnation, WA in an attempt to try and eat local and organic food. I went through a whole lot of other options before I decided on this one and the reason why I chose FCF is because they have a home delivery system apart from the regular pick up locations and the options for delivery are every week or every other week. These days I don't cook dinner at home every day - every day. It is mostly 2-3 times a week and I was pretty sure that if I get veggies and fruits delivered every week then most of it is going to go waste, so the every other week delivery works perfectly fine for me. We have got two deliveries now and so far we love it! It is always a surprise till the week before (when they send out the list of vegetables that are going to be there in your box, so that if you want you can substitute with other vegetables or order more from their seperate list of Green Groceries) and it makes me think to see what I can make with the produce I get rather than decide what to make and then buy produce accordingly.



So, yesterday I got some of these awesome baby carrots ( I managed to save some for the salad as I kept eating them as it is, they were so juicy and delicious) and zucchini along with a whole bunch of other produce - this time it is a lot of greens , rainbow chard, arugula, lettuce, rapini - that I just wanted to make something fresh with them for dinner the same day. I was at work and during the low period of the day, I started thinking about food and recipes and photo set ups, which happens many a time, and came up with this recipe for a Quinoa salad.


Look at those fresh limes. I got them from FCF too. It was a substitute I ordered for some fruit that we did not particularly enjoy the last time we got it.


So I sauteed the carrots, zucchini and some onions in a little olive oil for just a little bit.


Those are part of the dressing - the chopped cilantro, green chilli, garlic, salt, pepper and olive oil along with the lime juice. The toasted walnuts and dried cranberries were tossed into the salad after mixing the salad with the dressing.


In goes the olive oil into the lime juice, cilantro, green chilli, garlic mix.


The sauteed veggies get tossed up with the cooked quinoa.


The dressing goes on top of that. Give it a little toss again and add the walnuts and cranberries and your dinner is ready. This salad is not only healthy because of the whole grains and the veggies, it has such a wonderful flavor from all the aromatics and such a great combination of texture from the chewy dried cranberries and the crunchy toasted walnuts. It was totally an amazingly fresh salad! Go try it and see for yourself.



Quinoa Salad with Farm Fresh Vegetables, Dried Cranberries, Toasted Walnuts and Cilantro-Lime Dressing - The Recipe

Quinoa - 1 cup
Baby Carrots, thinly sliced like matchsticks - 5-6
Zucchini, cubed - 1
Yellow Onion, diced - 1/2
Olive Oil - 1 tsp
Dried Cranberries - 1/4 cup
Broken Walnuts - 1/2 cup
salt and freshly cracked black pepper

For the dressing:
Lime, squeezed - 1/2
Garlic, minced - 1 clove
Cilantro, minced - 3 tbsp
Green Chilli, minced - 1
Olive Oil - 4 tbsp
salt and freshly cracked black pepper

Wash and boil the quinoa in 1 1/2 cups water and a little salt till all the water evaporates and the quinoa is cooked. Fluff it with a fork and let it cool. Toast the walnuts and keep aside.

In a saute pan, heat the olive oil and saute the carrots, zucchini and onions lightly with some salt and pepper. Keep aside.

Mix all the ingredients for the dressing together. Add the sauteed vegetables to the cooked quinoa, pour the dressing on top and mix well with a fork. Add the cranberries and walnuts too and mix well. Check for seasoning and add more salt and pepper if required.

Enjoy your salad!