Quinoa, Black Bean, and Avocado Salad

I found this gem on one of my new favorite food blogs eatliverun.com.  It is delightful as a main dish (I ate it every day for lunch for a week!) or as a side dish, perhaps of a Mexican  inspired meal.  The original recipe called for grapefruit which I used, but it was a little too bitter for me.  I also don’t particularly like grapefruit, so I imagine it might be quite good if you love grapefruit.  Next time I am going to make it with some orange but I bet mango would also taste great.  This recipe tastes fresh and delicious.  Good for the heart and the soul 🙂

Quinoa, Black Bean, and Avocado Salad

Adapted from http://www.eatliverun.com/black-bean-quinoa-and-citrus-salad

Ingredients:

The Salad:

1 15-oz cans black beans, drained and rinsed

1/4 red onion, minced

1 large red bell pepper, diced

2 ears fresh corn, kernels chopped off’

1/2 cup uncooked quinoa

1 Haas avocado, diced

1/2 bunch cilantro, minced

*optional 1 grapefruit or orange, divided into segments and chopped or a diced mango

The dressing:

juice of 2 limes

1 tsp cumin

1 1/2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1/8 tsp sea salt

Directions:

Pour 1/2 cup quinoa into a saucepan and bring to a boil with 1 1/4 cups water.  Then reduced the heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes (until all of the water is absorbed).  Turn off the heat and remove the pan from the stove.  Gently fluff the quinoa with a fork.  Allow it to cool to room temperature.

Mix the black beans, red onion, cilantro, bell pepper, avocado, shucked corn kernels, and optional fruit in a large bowl.  For the corn, there is no need to cook the fresh corn.  Just shuck the corn, and cut the kernels off in four slices with a sharp knife.  After finishing cutting off the corn your ear should look like a rectangle.

In a different bowl, mix together the dressing ingredients.

Add quinoa to the salad and mix the dressing in.  Store the salad in the refrigerator and enjoy!

-Bakingbandit