Mango Blueberry Quinoa Salad with Lemon Basil Dressing

I tried this recipe last week, and it's a pretty good summer salad recipe. Not too hard - unless you get bad mangoes! I bought 2 mangoes for this, and both were stringy and bitter. So, I had my Mango Blueberry Quinoa Salad sans mango. I didn't take a photo of this one (I was probably too angry about the mango), but the photo on the Veggie Belly blog should serve the purpose. I just realized a minute ago that the name of the blog was Veggie Belly....I may have to look into that one further...


For the quinoa
1/2 cup quinoa
1 cup water

For the fruits and veggies
½ cup fresh blueberries
½ cup cubed ripe mangoes
½ cup cubed cucumbers
1/2 tablespoon dried cranberries

For the lemon basil dressing
1½ tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon lemon zest
10 Basil leaves, chopped finely
Salt and pepper

Place the quinoa and water in a medium skillet and bring to a boil. Then reduce heat, and simmer covered for about 15 minutes or till the quinoa is cooked. Remove the lid, and fluff the quinoa with a fork. Let it cool to room temperature.

While the quinoa is cooking, combine the fruits in a bowl and refrigerate till you are ready to serve the salad.

Whisk together all the dressing ingredients, except the chopped basil. Refrigerate till you are ready to serve. Chop and add the basil to the dressing just before serving. If you add it earlier, it will go black.

Add half the dressing to the quinoa and mix gently.

Assemble the salad just before serving – toss the quinoa, fruits and cucumbers together. Serve other half of the dressing on the side. Serve immediately.

(I ate mine in a few batches, and mixed everything together except the basil until I was ready to eat.)


Original recipe here (and Veggie Belly blog!)