Quinoa Salad with Grapes, Feta Cheese and Avocado

Circle B Kitchen

This was a delicious salad recipe as written, but I felt it desperately needed a couple of tweaks, the first being to move the avocado from the inside of the salad to the top where it retains its flavor and bite. The other tweak was to add some feta cheese which gave it a much-needed salty kick. To view the original recipe, click on the link below. There is no doubt that the key to this salad is the lime. Don't skimp on the lime zest and you would do fine to replace some of the olive oil with lime juice. Trust me on this one. Good stuff.

Recipe adapted from Katie Lee

Zest and juice of 1 lime

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper

*4 cups cooked quinoa, cooled

2 cups green grapes, halved

1 1/2 cups diced cucumbers

1/2 cup fresh mint, roughly chopped

1/2 cup fresh parsley, roughly chopped

4 scallions, white and light green parts, sliced

2/3 cup crumbled feta cheese

diced avocado for serving

In a large bowl, whisk together lime zest, lime juice and olive oil. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Toss the quinoa, grapes, cucumbers, mint, parsley, scallions and feta cheese together with the dressing. Sprinkle with diced avocado. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

*1 cup of quinoa will produce about 3-4 cups of cooked. Here's how to cook your quinoa...

Rinse the quinoa really well in a strainer set into a larger bowl. Swish the quinoa around in the water and then drain. Repeat this 2 or 3 times or until the water runs clear.

Place the drained quinoa in a pan with 1 ½ cups water and ½ teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Cover the pan and let it simmer for about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and let sit for 5 minutes before removing the lid and fluffing with a fork.