Quinoa Salad with Oranges | Thinking About...

When we were in Portland last month, my step-mom Julie made a wonderful dinner for the family on the night before the party. She had lemon chicken, green salad, pasta salad, quinoa salad, and a lot of patience. I say that because as she was cooking, family kept coming in and telling her things they didn’t like that were included in the recipes she was making. If I were trying to get chicken and three salads on the table, as well as drinks, bread, and so on, for 10 or so people, this would have bugged the crap out of me. She is perhaps used to it, though, as it didn’t seem to phase her a bit. Thankfully, the issues were mainly the green salad, so she was able to handle it by putting avocados and whatever else was offensive on the side. Picky people.

We’re not big quinoa eaters around here, though I think that’s habit more than anything else. Every time I do make it, everyone really enjoys it. I should probably make it more often. This recipe was a surprise to me, because it contains raisins, which Ted hates (though we didn’t chime in on the pickyness and have them omitted, because we’re saintly. Obviously.) But he not only gobbled up his serving of the quinoa, he had seconds, AND he told me that he thought the recipe really needed the raisins. They kind of made it good. Wow. Now I really do enjoy raisins. I like them in raisin bran, I like them in bagels, I like them in rice dishes, I like them in salads. I also like dried cranberries and dried apricots, which are not popular around my house. I live with weird people, don’t I? Good thing they’re so good looking and funny, or I might have to find some dried-fruit living people with whom to spend my time.

Julie photocopied the recipe for me from her cookbook. I don’t know what cookbook it was, or who to credit, aside from my very patient step-mom. I hope you’ll try this recipe, and that you enjoy it. It’s good warm, as it would be if you made it for or with dinner. It’s good room temperature, as if you left it out at a potluck while people were having a glass of iced tea. It’s good cold from the fridge, as if you had some leftover, and decided to eat it for lunch. Delicious.

Quinoa Salad with Oranges

Ingredients
Quinoa Mixture

1/2 cup almonds, slivered or sliced

2 cups stock, or water

1 cup quinoa, rinsed

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup raisins

2 oranges, peeled, sliced, and chopped

1/3 cup orange juice

1 shallot, finely chopped

2 Tblsp fresh parsley, chopped

2 Tblsp cilantro

1 Tblsp grated orange zest

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp ground coriander

2 Tblsp olive oil

Dressing*

1 garlic clove, minced

1/3 cup olive oil

1/4 cup fresh orange juice

3 Tblsp fresh lime juice

2 tsp honey

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground pepper

Directions
Toast almonds 4 to 5 minutes in dry skillet, stirring often.

Bring 2 cups stock or water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add quinoa and salt, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 15 minutes or until tender and almost all liquid is absorbed. Transfer to large bowl. Toss with raisins and oranges.

In a small bowl, mix orange juice, shallots, parsley, cilantro, orange zest, cumin, and coriander. Whisk in oil. Add to the quinoa.**

For dressing: whisk all the ingredients in a bowl, adding the black pepper last.
Pour dressing over the quinoa mixture and toss to coat. Garnish with toasted almonds.

* I’ve made this recipe twice since we were in Portland. The first time it was soupy, so I quickly cooked up another 1/2 cup of quinoa and mixed it in with the recipe. The second time I was making it for a party, so I doubled the Quinoa Mixture portion, but did not double the amount of dressing. That seemed like the perfect amount, but turned out to be dry. So now I’m thinking, if you double the recipe, double the dressing, put in about 1.5 times the regular amount, and then see what happens next.

** This is kind of confusing to me. These are liquid ingredients, and appear to be a dressing on their own. Which you toss with the quinoa and oranges, and then, add a second dressing. I’m not sure why you wouldn’t just incorporate these ingredients in with the dressing ingredients and toss them all together. But I didn’t ask questions and followed instructions. I’d make a good Nazi.