Quinoa and Avocado Salad

I have a special love for the avocado. I haven't found a dish that avocado doesn't make better. It's good in smoothies, desserts, and on any sandwich. Lately it's been in my breakfast - almost daily. But that is another story, and maybe another post.

Avocado does awesome things to quinoa too.

Other than needing to cook the quinoa first this is a quick dish to prepare. I usually make extra grains so I often have a batch sitting in the fridge, which makes meals like this a snap.

When it comes to guacamole I'm a purist. My guacamole has 4 ingredients: avocado, lime, salt and tomatoes. Sometimes I'll go crazy and add cilantro. My first thought was to just mix some quinoa with my standard guac and stick it in a wrap. But I felt a little more salad was needed. So I added a few more flavours, left the ingredients a little chunky to give the grain a bit more ommph and it totally works. You could also add a bit of hot sauce. When I wrapped up the leftovers the next day into salad wraps I added a few dashes of Frank's hot sauce and it was just perfect.

Serve this as a side dish - perfect for any kind of BBQ or even taco night. Or eat it on top of a plate full of fresh greens for a main meal. Also great stuffed into a wrap, I used collard greens here:

I used to be scared of collard greens too! I get it. I'm not from the South - I never had collards cooked or otherwise. I assumed they were bitter and strong-tasting. But no. Collards are actually a very mild and sweet green. You can eat them raw no problem. Given their size the make nice wraps. I usually remove the center rib and use each half of the leaf separately.

Leftovers will keep overnight. To keep the avocado from turning the salad a yucky colour I just took a piece of plastic wrap and pressed it down against the salad so that there was no air between the salad and the plastic. The salad looked just as nice the next day. Although I wouldn't try to keep it much longer than that.

Here is how you make the salad:

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Quinoa and Avocado Salad

Ingredients

• 1 cup of uncooked quinoa rinsed and drained
• 2 cups water
• 2 avocados chopped
• 1 large tomato diced
• 1 clove garlic
• juice of 1+½ limes
• ¼ cup red onions thinly sliced
• ¼ cup cilantro chopped
• salt to taste
• several dashes of hot sauce such as Frank's (optional)

Instructions

• Toast quinoa in a medium saucepan, over medium heat, until dry and fragrant. Add 2 cups of water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes or until water is absorbed. Allow to sit, covered and off the heat for about 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork and allow to cool completely.
• In a large bowl toss cooled quinoa and all remaining ingredients. Taste for seasonings. Be generous with the salt, I find avocado often needs more than you think.

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