Black Bean and Mango Quinoa Salad

Quinoa Salad sounds fancy doesn't it.
It sounds like a recipe.
Like a recipe in a cookbook.

If you make it you'll feel like you made a real dish, not just a bowl of things from the fridge that were about to go bad.

Let's not tell everyone that it's mostly a bowl of items from the fridge.
Let's keep them thinking we're real chefs!

My Delicious Quinoa Salad Recipe: (wink wink)


Ingredients:
1 Corn on the Cob
1/2 can of Black Beans
5 Cherry Tomatoes
1/4 cup of Quinoa
2 tbsp Red Onion in a small dice
2-3 cups of Lettuce, chopped or torn up small
1/2 mango cut into slices, or a dice, whatever

Sauce:
1/2 avocado
the juice of half a lemon
small splash of agave nectar
salt, pepper, chili powder, garlic, cumin, ground red pepper

Steps:
Boil your quinoa according to the package
Cut the corn off the cob, also I get the corn-milk from the cob. You run the back of your knife down the cob after the corn is cut off. This thick corny liquid comes off. It's tasty. If you put the cob in a large bowl and cut down, all the corn falls into the bowl and we can keep using the bowl.
Hard core rinse your black beans and add them to the corn bowl.
Small dice on the red onion, throw it in!
Chop the tomatoes into large pieces and put them in too
Chop/Tear the lettuce and wash it in a salad spinner!

at this point your quinoa is still cooking and you're almost done 

Let's make the sauce
Dice up your avocado and put into a cup
Squeeze half a lemon on top
Stir in the spices and stir until it's a thick sauce. You don't need to puree the avocado, I like my sauce chunky
Taste the sauce and add salt/pepper to your taste
Stir the sauce into the bean/corn combo.

uh oh... quinoa is still cooking and now we really are done... 

Layer the lettuce in a bowl and cut up your mango. Mango should be pretty soft and ripe, thus easy to cut.

YAY, quinoa is done. 

Stir the quinoa into the black bean bowl.
Put on top of the lettuce.
Put slices of mango around the edges.

PROFESSIONAL!

This one also keeps well in a fridge or lunch pail if you want to take it with you to work/school.

I think this "formula" of raw veggies, quinoa, and a fruit over lettuce makes a great lunch. You could totally switch it up with white beans, kale, red pepper and blueberries. Maybe garbanzo beans, cucumber, tomato, olives, and pear.

Happy Eating!