Quinoa Mexicana Salad
This isn’t a recipe that I just came up with out of the blue. I’ve actually been making this for husband for ages. For many years he was a vegetarian and so I was always trying to come up with new and exciting recipes that would offer him protein and vegetables (unlike me, a total carnivore at heart). This dish is now a regular in our house. There’s almost always a bowl of it in the fridge because it’s so quick and easy to prepare, but it’s also healthy.
Quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah) is a fantastic grain for kids because it has more protein then other grains, contains more calcium then milk, plus it’s easy to digest. Quinoa is also full of B vitamins, vitamin E and iron which 9% of toddlers, 700,000 in the U.S. alone have shown to have to be deficiency in.
I made this for my “kids dinner party” recently and all the little ones loved it. One of my friends kept saying her daughter “hates avocado”. Being kind of sneaky (I know! I’m all against sneaking foods, but this was just an experiment, I swear!), I asked her daughter if she wanted a bite of the quinoa mexicana salad and she said yes. When I tell you she gobbled up this dish AND the avocado it proves that sometimes, even little ones can be open minded to new flavors. You just never know.
Quinoa Mexicana Salad (makes 6-8 toddler servings)
1/2 Cup Quinoa, washed and drained
1 Cup Water
1/2 cup fresh or frozen Corn, cooked
1 Avocado, chopped
1/2 Cup Cherry Tomatoes
1 Tbsp Lime Juice
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
2 Tbsp Cilantro, chopped
1/4 Tsp Cumin
Salt to taste
1. Bring the water and quinoa to a boil in a saucepan.
2. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cover for 15 minutes.
3. Place the quinoa in a bowl and cool.
4. Add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine.
5. Serve.
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[...] and puree Split Pea Soup Celery Root Soup Brazilian Turkey Polenta: Just puree for baby and serve Quinoa Mexicana Salad: Mash it up for babies, leaving the cherry tomatoes out Sweet Potato Pudding Breakfast Grains: [...]
Hi Catherine! What should the texture of the quinoa be? I’ve never worked with it so I’m just curious if it’s suppose to be soft like cooked rice, or if it’s suppose to be a little hard.
Thanks and I’m excited to try this recipe!
It is a grain so it will be similar to couscous
Good stuff, thanks for sharing.
[...] found this recipe on Weelicious and then adapted it a bit based on the ingredients I had on hand. Here is my adapted [...]
[...] Do you ever find yourself going through phases where you will cook the same food over and over for weeks — sometimes months — on end? Well, that was me with quinoa. A few years back my husband went through a major quinoa eating phase which then rubbed off on our kids. I found myself steaming a pot of it every day and then tossing it with cherry tomatoes, olive oil, lemon and basil; mixing it with shrimp and avoacdo; or using it as the base for Quinoa Mexicana Salad. [...]
Yummy!! This was so good. Unfortunately I am the only one eating it…I guess that means more for me!lol!