Summery, fresh, and quick to prepare with minimal cooking. You can use leftover grilled corn or fresh, uncooked raw sweet corn kernels in this recipe (raw sweet corn gives an extra sweet and juicy pop to this dish).
Serve this high-protein, no-meat recipe as a side dish or eat it for lunch topped with sliced avocado and/or crumbled feta cheese.
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 1⁄2 cups uncooked quinoa, rinsed well (important to remove a bitter outer coating) and drained
- 1 teaspoon salt
- fresh raw corn kernels from 3 ears of corn
- 1 cup diced cherry tomatoes
- 1⁄2 cup finely diced red onion or scallions
- 1 cup packed fresh basil and/or parsley, finely chopped
- 4+ Tbsp flavorful olive oil - try our Organic Arbequina, Reserve, Estate, House Blend - or our Basil or Lisbon Lemon EVOO!
- 3-5 Tbsp fresh lemon juice, or 2-3 Tbsp White Balsamic / Apple Cider Vinegar
- Maldon sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
In medium saucepan, combine quinoa, salt and 2 3/4 cups water. Bring to a boil, then cover, reduce heat to low and simmer 15 minutes. Turn off heat, uncover allow to sit, covered for 5 minutes or until your other ingredients are ready. Fluff with a fork. You can make this days ahead and even assemble the whole dish cold if you like!
While quinoa is cooking, shuck your corn. Stand them up on their ends, holding the top, and using a very sharp knife, cut down the length of the ear to remove the kernels. Dice your tomatoes and onion and throw all these veggies into a large bowl.
When the quinoa is ready, add it to the bowl and toss with the veggies. The heat from the quinoa will soften everything a bit without fully cooking them so you'll still get the fresh sweet crunch. Drizzle the olive oil, lemon juice or vinegar and an initial round of salt and pepper over top and toss to combine. Taste and adjust for more seasoning as you like. Serves 4-6.
VARIATIONS:
- All kinds of fresh veggies can be subbed or added in here: chopped roasted/jarred bell peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, cucumber, zucchini, olives...
- Try mixing up your herbs - use a combination of parsley, dill, tarragon, or even cilantro!
- Want more crunch? Top with toasted nuts and seeds.
Run with your leftovers (a great reason to make a double batch!) – use this to make the stuffed peppers, summer squash or eggplant: Halve and roast your "boat" veggies until soft, scoop out as much middle as you can without compromising the integrity of your vessel, and mix in with the quinoa corn mixture, seasoning with additional salt and pepper to taste (remember your "boats" have no salt, so a little extra in the filling balances out well when you're eating the whole thing), then spoon that mixture back in as a filling. Top with cheese, breadcrumbs or nutritional yeast and broil the tops - voila dinner!
