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Quinoa Salad with Chickpeas

A very savory and healthy quinoa salad with spicy chickpeas and lots of fresh herbs along with a delicious creamy dressing that you are going to devour.

Ingredients

1 cup uncooked black quinoa (or white quinoa)
2 cups cooked chickpeas (or one can of chickpeas)
1 big ripe avocado, diced
5 sun-dried tomatoes diced
1 red onion finely diced
2 cups fresh parsley (stems removed)
2 hard-boiled eggs, diced
Toasted sesame seeds for garnish

Roasted chickpeas dressing:
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon garam masala (or any spice mix of your liking)
1 teaspoon paprika powder
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt

Salad dressing:
1/3 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons tahini
½ spoon lemon juice
½ teaspoon salt (or to taste)

Instructions

1.  Put the cooked chickpeas on an oven pan. If you use canned chickpeas, rinse and drain them well before roasting.
2.  Add the spices, olive oil, and salt, and mix until well coated.
3.  Roast in the oven for 20 minutes 350ºF. Toss to make sure they get evenly crispy at 10 minutes.
4.  While the chickpeas cook, rinse and drain the quinoa in a fine mesh colander to remove the saponin.
5.  In a small pan, add the quinoa and double the quantity of it with water. (a ratio of 1 measure quinoa, 2 measures water), add salt and cook in medium heat for 15-20 minutes.
6.  In a saucepan boil the eggs well covered with water until done (usually 10 minutes or so, we want hard-boiled eggs, not runny).  If you want to leave this as a vegan recipe, you can just leave the eggs out.

While all of these ingredients cook:

 

7.  Wash the parsley, remove the stems and chop finely
8.  Dice the sun-dried tomatoes, avocado, and red onion.  (I LOVE using this chopper to dice onions!)
9.  Once the quinoa is done, let it cool down to room temperature, as well as the chickpeas.
10. Mix the dressing ingredients in a small bowl and whisk them until all tahini has dissolved and it’s well combined with the rest of the ingredients.
11. Mix all the ingredients in a serving bowl, pour the dressing, and mix until well combined.
12. Sprinkle some sesame seeds on top for garnish
13. Enjoy!

Notes

  • You can skip hard-boiled eggs to make it vegan.
  • If your sun-dried tomatoes are too dry, you can soak them in warm water while you prep the rest of the ingredients, so they can get a bit softer and less hard to chew.
  • If you find the flavor of red onion too strong, you can place it in ice-cold water when chopped while you prep the rest of the ingredients. When ready to assemble the salad, just drain it well and toss it into the salad.  This will remove the super pungent kick while still maintaining the flavor and texture.

Keywords: quinoa salad, quinoa salad recipe

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