I didn’t even think I really liked quinoa. I’m sure I made it once back in the day and was like eh. But today that all changed! This quinoa salad is delicious and loaded with goodies: feta cheese, roasted red peppers, artichokes, red onions, raisins, pine nuts, and a lemon basil vinaigrette. This recipe made 3 big meal sized salads.

I will say thought that I enjoyed the salad more the first night then when I had the leftover salad at work. I find that temperature is a super important factor when it comes to cooking. The first night the quinoa was about at room temperature, but when I had the leftovers, the quinoa was refrigerator cold. I think the room temperature was much better!

In order to have more plump juicy raisins, I heated up a little water in the microwave for a minute and poured it over the raisins for a couple of minutes, then drained them.

Lemon Basil Vinaigrette
2 tablespoon olive oil
Juice from 2 small lemons
1 tablespoon water
~2 tablespoons sliced basil
Pinch Sugar
Salt

• Mix altogether in a mason jar and shake.

Loaded Quinoa Salad
1 cup quinoa
Salt
4 ounces feta cheese
1 bag of baby greens (5 ounces)
1/2 jar or so of roasted red peppers chopped (about one big pepper)
1  package of Trader Joe’s artichokes chopped (from the refrigerator section, I bet a can would work fine too)
1/4 red onion finely chopped
1/3 cup raisins
1/4 pine nuts toasted then cooled (I think it is good to toast them again even if they are toasted in the package)
Lemon basil vinaigrette

1. Bring 1 cup of quinoa and 2 cups of water with a little salt to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to simmer, and cook for 15-17 minutes without lifting the lid. Once done, let quinoa cool. I rushed the cooling by putting the quinoa in a bowl in the freezer for a few minutes.
2. Mix everything together and voila!