Cooking with Quinoa- Part 1

We've had a stretch of triple digit temperatures for the past few days, so cooking dinner has been happening on the later side of the evenings, which means 1)it has to be quick, and 2) it has to not heat up the kitchen. How do I achieve this? Preparing entrée salads, and using "cook once, use twice" methods.

That is exactly how this salad came about. I cooked the quinoa according to the package instructions, which was 1 cup quinoa to 2 cups water, which made 3 cups of cooked quinoa. Whenever I cook rice or other grains, I always end up with extra.  I introduced my 2 step-teenagers to quinoa with this recipe, so they only took taster-portions, so I ended up with a lot extra. But it didn't go to waste, prepare for a Part 2.

Shrimp and Avocado Salad with Quinoa
Serves 6 as a side dish, 4 as an entrée salad

Ingredients:
1 cup quinoa, rinsed well
2 cups water
1/2 pound extra large shrimp, peeled and de-veined
Trader Joe's Orange Muscat Champagne Vinegar
Grapeseed oil (or Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
Dijon Mustard, 1 teaspoon
Juice from 1 orange, divided
1 green apple, medium dice
2 avocados, medium dice
Dried cranberries
Salt and pepper, season to taste

Directions: Start the quinoa by following the package directions, making sure to salt the cooking water. Its very similar to cooking rice, and takes about the same amount of time. As the quinoa was cooking, prepare the rest of the salad. Sauté the shrimp on medium-high heat in grapeseed oil, seasoning with salt and pepper and squeeze half of the orange directly into the pan. Shrimp cook quickly, as soon as they turn pink they are done. The shrimp goes into the bowl, reserving the juices, as they will become the base of the vinaigrette. To round out the vinaigrette, I added the rest of the orange juice, a teaspoon of Dijon mustard, a tablespoon (roughly) of vinegar and about twice the oil as vinegar. You could definitely use a regular champagne vinegar, or white wine or rice wine vinegar if you didn't have the Trader Joe's Orange Muscat Champagne Vinegar on hand, but I did, and it is delicious on just about any salad you can think of. But I digress...
Dice up the green apple and the avocados, and add them to the bowl of shrimp. I also add a handful of dried cranberries for the color and flavor. Toss everything with the vinaigrette, making sure to coat evenly, and give it a final taste for seasoning. On that night, I served the salad and the quinoa separately since I was feeding picky teenagers, but it can be folded into the salad for a protein packed side salad. Simply let the quinoa cool slightly before adding to the rest of the ingredients.


For dinner I quickly pan-fried some snapper lightly dredged in flour (I used the same pan I cooked the shrimp in, just wiped it out) and served the shrimp and avocado salad as one side and the quinoa as another. We ate about half of the quinoa that night, so I stored the rest in a container in the fridge for a special morning treat. See Part 2 of Cooking with Quinoa to find out what I made!