Want to have a healthy diet but craving for flavourful dishes every now and then? Then, a big bowl of bountiful salad is the best way to consume refreshing, pleasurable and nutritional rich greens. The salad is mainly made with a mixture of raw greens and vegetables, tossed in oil, vinegar, herbs and other flavorings as dressing. The light and delightful dish also celebrates May as the National Salad month. With the emerging experimental trends in foods, salad is also given new dimensions.
The Rainbow Quinoa Salad – comprises Quinoa as the primary ingredient, which makes up the body, layered with the fresh vegetables like carrots, tomatoes, bell peppers, baby greens and cabbage and garnished with lemon wedges and hummus. The bright-coloured and multi flavored salad will definitely keep you in a good and blooming shape. Along with the nutritional vegetables filled with goodness , quinoa grains are a good source of plant-based proteins and antioxidants. It is loaded with the goodness of countless nutrients including magnesium, fiber, phosphorus, iron and so on.
Back in the 1 century CE Ancient Greeks and Romans created the world’s first salad and believed that adding Salt to green-leafy vegetables would reduce the bitterness, thereby making it easier to gobble up the salad. Salad originated from a Latin term Sal, which means salt. In English, the term first appeared in the 14th century as “salad” or “sallet” (salted herb).
Some suggested eating salad before the main courses helps in cleaning the intestines while some argued that vinegar dressing in salads affected the taste of wine hence should be eaten after supper. Simple olive oil and vinegar emulsion were used as the first-ever dressing to add flavor and moisture to the greens. Quinoa is an Andean plant that was used to feed livestock 7000 years ago, but later became a local staple food. The plant originated in the mountains of Bolivia, Peru and Chile.
Here is the Rainbow Quinoa Salad recipe.
Prep Time: 20 min
Servings: 1
Ingredients:
• ½ cup cooked quinoa
• ½ cup halved grape tomatoes
• ¼ Grated carrot
• ½ diced yellow bell pepper
• 1 cup mixed baby greens
• ¼ shredded red cabbage
• 2 tablespoon hummus
• 2 lemon wedges for topping
Method:
1. Add the cooked quinoa to the bottom of a meal prep container to form an even layer.
2. In lines covering the quinoa, add the tomatoes, carrot, bell pepper, mixed baby greens, and red cabbage.
3. Top with the hummus and a squeeze of lime.
4. Serve and Enjoy.
Tips:
1. You can add vegetables of your choice like lettuce, beetroot, cucumber and more.
2. Enjoy the salad with your favorite type of sauce.
3. Add on nuts or tofu.
4. Vegetables can be tossed in vinegar or soy sauce with salt and black pepper.
5. For garnishing fresh cilantro can also be used.
Relish the quick-made, lightened up and powerful bowl of Rainbow Quinoa salad and share the health-happiness with everyone .