My weekend consisted of about 20+ hours cooking, baking, styling, and shooting cookbook recipes. It was intense, but luckily I always seem to have a lot of fun when there’s food involved. I managed to cap off the weekend by gouging my middle finger with a processor blade. Middle finger indeed. Side note – Have you ever tried to type with a band-aid on? This could get ugly…
As Hillary said on Instagram, my kitchen photo made her twitch:
I feel you, Hillary.
Anyway, it felt so good to kick up my feet Sunday night! This quinoa salad fueled my weekend, in addition to 3 summer appetizers, 1 breakfast recipe, and 2 entrées. Luckily, we had friends over Saturday night to help us eat all the appetizers we were drowning in. The plates were empty within an hour, so I’ll take that as a good sign!
This quinoa salad is served warm, which seemed appropriate for the cooler temps we had over the weekend. It’s all topped off with a lovely green sauce to infuse the dish with a tangy bite of fresh herbs, lemon, and olive oil. I used basil, chives, and dill because that’s what I had on hand, but feel free to use any herbs you like.
Featuring all new, protein-packed salads, hearty toppers, flavour boosters, and dressings you'll want to drink, my new cookbook will transform the way you think about salads. Oh, and be sure to flip to the back for a surprise dessert chapter!
Warm Quinoa Salad with 3-Herb Green Sauce
Yield
2-3 servings
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Ingredients
For the salad
- 1 cup dry quinoa
- 1.5 cups water
- 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 0.45kg/1 lb mixed cherry/Campari tomatoes
- 3 corn-on-the-cob, shucked
- 3 green onions, chopped
For the 3 herb green sauce
- 1 clove garlic
- 1/2 cup lightly packed basil
- 1 tbsp fresh dill*
- 2 tbsp fresh chives
- approx 1/4 cup yellow tomato*
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1/8th tsp fine grain sea salt, or to taste
- 1/2 tsp nutritional yeast (optional)
Directions
- Rinse quinoa in a fine mesh strainer. Add quinoa to a medium-sized pot along with 1.5 cups water and a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil, stir, reduce heat to low and cover with lid. Cook for 15-17 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit for 5 minutes with the lid on before fluffing with a fork.
- Preheat a large skillet over medium heat. Chop tomatoes and mince garlic. Remove corn from the cob by slicing down the ear of the corn with a chef’s knife. Add oil to skillet and the chopped veggies. Season generously with Herbamare or fine grain sea salt. Cook for about 7-8 minutes and remove from heat. Stir in chopped green onions.
- Meanwhile, make the green sauce in a food processor. Start by dropping the garlic into the processor to mince. Now add in the herbs and mince again. Next add the liquids – tomatoes, oil, and lemon juice. Stop to scrape down the side of the bowl as needed. Season to taste & add opt. nooch.
- To assemble, spoon quinoa into a bowl, layer the tomato and corn mix on top, and spoon on green sauce. Season with salt and pepper & enjoy!
Tip:
- You can sub any fresh herbs that you like.
- The yellow tomatoes in this green sauce acts as an oil-replacer. They thin out the sauce without needing a ton of oil. I used yellow tomatoes so the sauce would remain a lovely green colour. Red tomatoes will likely change the colour to be less vibrant.
- 3-Herb Green Sauce yield is approx 1/3 cup
The fridge is overflowing with simple, healthy food. It’s going to be a great week!
Just wanted to say thanks for your website. My husband and I are converting to vegan eating (so far so good!) and yours is the most most helpful online resource that I’ve found. My favorite, too. I am happily surprised by how good everything tastes!
Thank you Katie, I appreciate that!
I have been searching for a good quinoa salad! Can’t wait to try this out. Your pics are fabulous.
This salad looks amazing–it’s so clearly bursting with all the best flavors of summer! :)
aw man, I’m definitely craving some quinoa now :). When I get home I’m making this!
So beautiful and fresh! Congrats on all you accomplished-hope you heal soon from your injury!!!
Looks really tasty. Love the pic of your kitchen. Mine looks like that all the time. I dont feel so bad now :)
This looks divine!
I love the colours of this dish.
That sauce really would top it off.
Your kitchen is filled with evidence of love :)
Cut fingers all part of being a kitchen chef experimenting with creating new recipes. Unfortunately, being poisoned by MSG/free form gluatamate in the form of Nutritional Yeast or Bragg’s Liquid Aminos or hydrolyzed yeast extract or vegetable protein any of the many names it is disguised under should not be part of cooking and eating. For anyone interested, look up Dr. Russell Blaylock and his groundbreaking dissemination of information that is widely known but not widely made available. Nutritional yeast is an excitotoxin and there is much evidence that it damages brain cells. Up to everyone to decide for themselves and to seek out information as they choose. Thanks Angela for your scrumptious recipes and for a forum to share!
This looks really yummy! Your kitchen mess makes me excited for your cookbook – especially since I see a muffin tin out on your stove :)
hi! i love your blog! will you please check out mine?
Did I miss your announcement where you said you got the cookbook deal? In any case, that is what my kitchen looks like on the weekends, too. I hate mid-week cooking so I try to do a cooking marathon instead. I love how your laptop is right in the middle of the mess. ;)
Angela this looks so simple and yummy. I can’t wait to make it and take it to uni as an easy healthy lunch. Thank you for your continued inspiration with food and cooking :)
Love xx
This looks so good, Angela! I think I might even be able to convince my husband to try it. ;)
I feel ya on typing with a band aid! It always messes me up. I love the picture of the tomatoes! They just started carrying baby heirloom tomatoes at our local grocery store and I am putting them in everything. Looks like I’ve found one more recipe to put them in and I’m not complaining:)
This looks amazingly delicious and light! I certainly will try it soon. I’ve actually been making lots of your salads (and, well, recipes in general) lately and I can’t thank you enough for sharing such tasty and healthy recipes. My new personal fave – your whole foods imitation salad (the one with the edamame, quinoa, and wheatberries) on a bed of baby spring greens topped with organic mixed baby tomatoes (just like the ones in your recipe above), fresh orange slices, and your creamy lemony avocado dressing. OUTTA THIS WORLD!
I also just tried the cinnamon raisin cookie VOO for the first time earlier this week, and it was just perfect for a quick healthy breakfast out the door to work in the A.M. And that healthy chocolate chia pudding gets two thumbs way up! Keep up your awesome work. I can’t wait to try more of your recipes very soon. I truly applaud your creativity in coming up with such unique and flavorful combinations of ingredients that, in addition to being delicious, pack a true nutritional punch. It really makes eating mindfully and healthfully a pleasure.
Many kudos and a big hug,
Jen
So beautiful!! And I’m sure that the veggies that you put on top could vary seasonally and change the dish’s “theme” completely. Can’t wait to try it!! :)
Thanks for all the great posts! Made your ‘Warm Quinoa Salad with 3-Herb Green Sauce’ tonight and it was fabulous! I’ve been looking for great recipes with quinoa and I’ve had a lot of fresh basil that I was wanting to use up….so thanks!
I’m glad you enjoyed it Maria! Thanks for letting me know. :)
It looks yummy Angela! It is great for a school lunch too.. I am always looking for inspiration for lunches that I can bring to school.. Maybe you could to a post on that too, like you did with snacks?? (I really loved that post!) :)
Hope you finger is okay! :)
That looks soooo delicious. I have been eating quinoa for about two years know. For some reason people just don’t know about it. It seems like it is a best kept secret for some some reason. I love quinoa in salads. :) Great post.
To me your weekend sounds like fun ;) Best thing to chill me out after a long day of work – twirling around with pots and spoons in the kitchen and whipping up some new recipes.
And a note to this amazing salad with the beautiful green sauce: I bet you could sub cucumber for the yellow tomatoes and still have a nice vibrant color.