Quinoa salad

I mentioned before that I don't really like quinoa as a straight substitute for rice. I add it to rice all the time as a nutritional and volume boost (it just about triples in size when cooked). But there is one recipe I love with quinoa as the main ingredient: Black Bean and Tomato Quinoa. Or just Quinoa Salad for short. I got the recipe here, then tweaked it a little to get the deliciousness and colorfulness that you see here:

• 2 teaspoons grated lime zest (I skip this half the time because I don't usually have limes on hand)
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 cup quinoa
• 1 (14- to 15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 2 medium tomatoes, diced
• 4 green onions, chopped (I only used 2 today, and it was great)
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro (totally forgot about this one this time! Oops!)
• about 1 cup of corn
• avacado (or two), diced

Cook quinoa in 2 cups of boiling water (or at least in the ratio 2:1 water:quinoa), covered, for 10-15 minutes until all the water is absorbed. While that's cooking, whisk together lime zest and juice, butter, oil, sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a large bowl.

Add quinoa to dressing and toss until dressing is absorbed, then stir in remaining ingredients and salt and pepper to taste. Let sit in refrigerator for 30+ minutes before serving. 

The birds have discovered our tasty tomatoes in the garden unfortunately, so we had less tomatoes than I'd expected--just a handful of cherry tomatoes, but it was good anyway. We had this with chicken tenders tonight, but it's pretty good on it's own, or throw in some tortilla chips and use it like a dip.

Even our youngest customer was a big (messy) fan: