Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Red Quinoa, Black Bean, and Corn Salad




We are back from a really wonderful visit in Texas.  In July.  In the midst of a heatwave/drought.  Out of the fire into the frying pan.  Texas is on about their 20th day of heat over 100 degree temps.  Everything was burned up.  The grass is all dead and brown, as are the crops.  Are we luckier here?  We're in the upper 90's with about 1 billion percent humidity.  But it is still green here.  If you're in the midst of this awful summer and have pets, please remember the heat hits them, too.  Water, water, water, and indoor cooler temps.  Please.

Needless to say, my oven won't be used for a while.  It's all grilling and salads here.  I'm doing some chicken/vegetable kabobs on the grill tonight and made this salad to go along with it.  I think I got a bad batch of quinoa, the last couple of batches I made never fluffed up.  I ran across this Red Quinoa a few months ago at Fresh Market and had kinda forgotten about it.  I made it last night for a side dish so I used the leftovers to make this salad today.  It's gonna go great with the kabobs.

RED QUINOA, BLACK BEAN, AND CORN SALAD

1 to 1 1/2 cups cooked quinoa (I made a batch last night with 1 cup quinoa and 1 1/4 cup water....we ate about half of it....these were the leftovers)
1/2 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 can white shoepeg corn, drained and rinsed
1/3 sweet red pepper, small dice
1/4 cup minced red onion
1 mango, skinned and diced
minced cilantro, to taste
1 green onion, green part only, chopped (I added this since I used red quinoa, it needed a bit more color)

Dressing:
2 Tbsp canola oil
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice
1/2 tsp Durango salt *
1/4 tsp black pepper

Whisk until combined.  Add to salad mixture.  Chill.

*Have you seen those fancy-schmancy salts in gourmet food chops?  I picked up a couple of these yesterday.  This one is called "Durango" is a basically a smoked salt.  Kinda smells like liquid smoke.  If I did not have this, I would use some type of southwest seasoning blend, or some cumin and chili powder.

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