Quinoa Salad with Roasted Corn & Green Beans

By all means, I want you to use fresh veggies in this recipe, so please ignore my frozen beans... I am actually kind of embarassed by them.  It all started with a very large 5 lb. bag of frozen petite green beans... here's why I bought them; I love French green beans and used to buy them fresh at Costco, and they went bad in about 2 days... ick.  A waste of money and food, I usually threw away half of them every time.  So, when I saw this bag, I thought BINGO, I can have my beans anytime I want them. Yeah, except now, I am seeing fresh green beans at the Farmer's Markets and looking at my frozen beans with some disdain!  I have GOT to use those things up...


Yikes, I had TWO frozen ingredients in this dish... what the heck is wrong with me?  Ease? Convience? Yeah, I'm all about that! Thanks to my neighbors (who are both awesome and good test kitchen eaters...), I found out about Trader Joe's pre-roasted frozen corn!  If you can't find that, you are going to have to roast your own corn on your grill and slice it off the cob.  I was short on time, and didn't feel like the mess and time of roasting my own!

This salad is nice and healthy with great flavors and textures, and it will keep nicely for an outdoor BBQ for the 4th of July. 

1 1/2 cups dry quinoa, rinsed
3 cups water

1 cup roasted corn
2 cups green beans, cut into 1" pieces
1/2 red onion, chopped
1/2 cup roasted red peppers, chopped
1/4 cup parsley or green onions, chopped
2-3 Tbsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
salt & pepper

Bring 3 cups of water to boil and add the 1 1/2 cups of rinsed quinoa to salted water.  Bring down the heat to medium and cook, uncovered, for about 15 minutes until all the water is absorbed.  Fluff with a fork and let cool.

Mix and chop all your veggies while your quinoa is cooking, and cooling. Mix them all together and toss. Add the olive oil, lemon juice and seasoning to taste. 

If you like this salad, you might like these too:
Couscous Black Bean Salad
Grilled Vegetable Couscous Salad
Quinoa, Cauliflower and Feta Salad
Tabouleh
Whole Wheat Asian Noodle Salad