Colorful Quinoa Brown Rice Salad

#CookoutWeek 2018 is here! During the next week, I am joining over 50 of my blogger friends to celebrate summer by posting delicious cookout-themed recipes. If you love grilling, frozen treats, picnics, berries, s'mores, campfire meals, and other summer goodies... you are in the right place!

*This is a sponsored post.  I recieved products to use in the creation of my #CookoutWeek recipes. All opinions are my own.*

To kick things off, I've sharing Colorful Quinoa Brown Rice Salad, a recipe that I've adapted slightly from Taste of Home.  Back in October, I changed my eating habits, and part of that change was trying new things.  Quinoa was on the list to try, and I've found a brown rice/quinoa blend that I love.

When I saw the recipe for this salad, I used that as the jumping off point, and then followed the rest of the recipe as it was written.  While the quinoa and brown rice cooked, I chopped all the veggies.  So many beautiful colors and textures.  I keep my gingerroot in the freezer, and used a microplane to grate it.  That really helped it get distributed evenly throughout the dish.

This comes together so quickly, and it gets better as it sits.  I just gave the lidded bowl a shake when I passed by the fridge.  It was the perfect side to some burgers, and it was awesome with some leftover diced grilled chicken rolled into a multi grain tortilla. Next time I might even add some diced jalapeno.  Thank you to Catherine T. for sharing her recipe!

Colorful Quinoa Brown Rice Salad

ingredients:

• 1 3/4c water
• 1 pkg quinoa (I used Near East Quinoa and Brown Rice, omitting the spice packet)
• 2 cups fresh baby spinach, thinly sliced
• 1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
• 1 medium cucumber, seeded and chopped
• 1 medium sweet orange pepper, chopped
• 1 medium sweet yellow pepper, chopped
• 2 green onions, chopped
• DRESSING:
• 3 tablespoons lime juice
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 teaspoons honey
• 1 tablespoon grated lime zest
• 2 teaspoons minced fresh gingerroot
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

instructions:

1. In a large saucepan, bring water to a boil. Add quinoa and brown rice. Reduce heat; simmer, covered, 12-15 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat; fluff with a fork. Transfer to a large bowl; cool completely.
2. Stir spinach, tomatoes, cucumber, peppers and green onions into quinoa. In a small bowl, whisk dressing ingredients until blended. Drizzle over quinoa mixture; toss to coat. Refrigerate until serving.

Slightly adapted from : https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/colorful-quinoa-salad

quinoa, salad,

Vegetables, side dishes, healthy

American

Created using The Recipes Generator

Here's a full list of the bloggers participating in #CookoutWeek 2018! You can find yummy recipes by checking out any of the links below: The PinterTest Kitchen ♥ 2 Cookin Mamas ♥ A Day in the Life on the Farm ♥ A Kitchen Hoor's Adventures ♥ April GoLightly ♥ Blogghetti ♥ Bottom Left of the Mitten ♥ Cheese Curd In Paradise ♥ Coconut & Lime ♥ Cookaholic Wife ♥ CookwithRenu ♥ Daily Dish Recipes ♥ Everyday Eileen ♥ Fairyburger ♥ Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice ♥ Fix Me a Little Lunch ♥ For the Love of Food ♥ Frankly Entertaining ♥ Get the Good Stuff! ♥ Hardly A Goddess ♥ Herbivore Cucina ♥ Join Us, Pull up a Chair ♥ Jolene's Recipe Journal ♥ Jonesin' For Taste ♥ Karen's Kitchen Stories ♥ Kelly Lynn’s Sweets & Treats ♥ Mildly Meandering ♥ Moore or Less Cooking ♥ Our Good Life ♥ Oven Tales By Syama ♥ Palatable Pastime ♥ Sarah Cooks the Books ♥ Savory Moments ♥ Seduction In The Kitchen ♥ Sweet Coralice ♥ Tampa Cake Girl ♥ Technotini ♥ That Recipe ♥ The Baking Fairy ♥ The Beard and The Baker ♥ The Simple Supper ♥ The Spiffy Cookie ♥ The Weekday Gourmet ♥ This is How I Cook ♥ Who Needs A Cape? ♥ Wildflour's Cottage Kitchen

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