Quinoa Fruit Salad with Honey Lime Dressing

Recipe from Two Peas and Their Pod

Quinoa:

1 cup red quinoa

2 cups water

Pinch of salt

For the Honey Lime Dressing:

Juice of 1 large lime


3 tablespoons honey


2 tablespoons finely chopped mint

Fruit:

1 1/2 cups blueberries


1 1/2 cups sliced strawberries


1 1/2 cups chopped mango


Extra chopped mint, for garnish-optional

Directions:

1. Using a strainer, rinse the quinoa under cold water. Add quinoa, water, and salt to a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Boil for 5 minutes. Turn the heat to low and simmer for about 15 minutes, or until water is absorbed. Remove from heat and fluff with a fork. Let quinoa cool to room temperature. 

2. To make the Honey Lime Dressing: In a medium bowl, whisk the lime juice, honey, and mint together until combined.

3. In a large bowl, combine blueberries, strawberries, and mango. Add quinoa, We used 1/3 the amount of quinoa cooked (you can adjust this amount to personal taste). Pour honey lime dressing over the fruit salad and mix until well combined. Garnish with additional mint, if desired. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

Beet and Potato Salad

Recipe from New York Times

Yesterday was 80 degrees––warm enough to make you long for summer...and ribs and potato salad and eating outdoors. That's just what we did. This amazing Beet Potato Salad uses yogurt instead of mayo. The Best-Ever Barbecued Ribs not only lived up to their name, but were ridiculously easy to make.

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Recipe adapted from The New York Times

A great tasting salad that makes for delicious left-overs the next day.

3-1/2 tbsp. soy sauce

2 tsp. brown sugar

2 tsp. Asian fish sauce
Juice & zest from one lime

Half a jalapeño, seeded & minced

1 clove garlic

4 tbsp. oil

1/2 pound extra-firm tofu, cut into 3/4-inch thick pieces

6 c. shredded cabbage

1 large carrot, grated

1/3 c. coarsely chopped, roasted salted peanuts

2 tbsp. chopped cilantro, plus more for garnish

Make vinaigrette by whisking together 2 tbsp. soy sauce, brown sugar, 1-1/2 tsp. fish sauce, lime juice and zest, jalapeño and garlic. Whisk in 3 tbsp. oil.

Pat tofu dry with paper towels. Heat 1 tbsp. oil in skillet until shimmery. Add tofu and cook about 3 minutes without moving, until golden brown. Flip and cook 2 more minutes. Transfer to paper towel. In a small bowl, whisk 1-1/2 tbsp. soy sauce and 1/2 tsp. fish sauce. Move tofu to a cutting board and brush both sides with the mixture.  Cut into bite size pieces.

In a large salad bowl, toss cabbage, carrot, peanuts, cilantro, tofu and vinaigrette. Garnish with more peanuts and cilantro. 

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Recipe from Gilt Taste

Caesar Salad artfully prepared. This recipe--and its tips--elevates the classic to perfection in balance and flavor. We've tried lots of Caesar recipes and this, by far, is the best. Thank you Karina for posting this on your amazing blog:  Dreaming of Palm Trees.

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Recipe from Food and Wine

Great salad that gets even better as a leftover. The arugula pesto is delicious. Note: Since pine nuts seem to be the price of gold these days, we used walnuts as a substitute.

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Recipe from Smitten Kitchen

Be sure to use fresh mozzarella and lots of it!  

Lime and Cilantro Quinoa Salad

Recipe from In Words and Pictures

This salad tastes like summer. The flavors are so fresh and delicious. We did saute fresh corn, cut off the cob, but that was the only change to the recipe. We also served it at room temperature, but this salad would be very good chilled. 

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Recipe from Fine Cooking