Quinoa & Avocado Salad Recipe - Laura Vitale - Laura in the Kitchen

Hi guys, I'm Laura Vitale, on this episode of Laura in the Kitchen I want to share with you something really easy, perfect for summer, and this is a recipe that I've recreated from one of my favorite places in New York City that we go to have lunch, and they call it a quinoa tabbouleh salad, I just like to call it a quinoa and avocado salad, it is incredibly easy, handful of ingredients but all together just make for the perfect summer salad, it's light, it's satisfying, it's just everything that's good in the world, and I think it's like a bite of summer and I just absolutely love it, and you're really going to need just a handful of ingredients, but do give it a try with these recommended ones and then just add things in. I've got some diced cucumbers and lots of freshly chopped mint, I've got some cooked chickpeas, and what I have here is some quinoa that I've washed and it's in a little sieve, lemon, avocado, extra virgin olive oil, and salt. That's it. Now I want to share with you how I like to cook my quinoa, it's really the same as the package instructions, but sometimes when I have recipes that call for quinoa and I already have it cooked, I get a lot of questions about how I like to use it. Cook quinoa the very same way you would cook rice in a 2 to 1 ratio, so what I have here is a half a cup of quinoa, make sure that you rinse the quinoa really really well because it's got like a dusting of sandy powder all coating it, that gives it a bitter taste, so make sure that you wash it and wash it really well, and just take a few minutes and then just let the water run clear. And then what you do, so I have half a cup of quinoa that I've rinsed really well, and then I have one cup of water, now if I were making quinoa as a side dish or to go with like a chicken dish or something like that, I would use some stock, I would use some chicken stock or vegetable stock, but I found that for salads, the stock just tends to be a little bit overwhelming, so I like to cook it in just water, so that's a total preference though, but if you are cooking it as a side dish, just to have it as a side dish, cook it in some stock so that you give it extra flavor, because that's going to be just the side dish itself. And also a small small pinch of salt, and the tiniest drizzle of olive oil, I'm talking maybe a half a teaspoon, that's it. Now what you do is you bring this to a boil, once you bring this to a boil, you lower the heat to about medium low, you put a lid on it, let it cook for ten minutes, then you turn the heat off and let it sit for five minutes and you've got perfectly cooked quinoa every single time. Now while that happens, I'm just going to take my chickpeas and I'm just going to add them to my big bowl because I just want to clear up a little bit, so we will be ready to assemble our salad. This is so good! You have to try it! I'm actually going to make the vinaigrette now, I'm going to add a good pinch of salt, a good bit of olive oil, because this is going to be the dressing for the whole thing, and I also have some mixed greens back there because that's going to be what this sits on top of, and then once you serve it with the avocados, it is so incredible! And a lot of people on our vlog channel have seen us go there over and over again, and always say, man, that salad must be good because that's all you ever get, and it is! I'm going to add the juice of one lemon, start with half, depending on how juicy your lemon is or how much lemon you like, I like it quite lemony, so I'm going to do one whole lemon, and then all I'm going to do is just take my fork or whatever you have, mix this together and set it aside to let it kind of marinate a little bit until the quinoa is cooked and fully ready to be added to this mixture. My quinoa is perfect, you can see there's no liquid or anything at the bottom of the pan, just make sure you fork it with a fork instead of using a wooden spoon so that way it fluffs up really nicely, and I just once it cooked for ten minutes in the boiling water with the lid on, turn it off for five minutes, I just took the lid off and let it sit for about ten minutes so that it could cool a little bit, just going to take my wooden spoon to get it out so that I don't scratch my pan, put it right into my cucumber mixture, bring this closer to me, just give everything a good toss, that warm quinoa instantly awakens the mint and the lemon and it's just phenomenal! This is like one of the best salads, I'm telling you, in the entire world! And then I've got some mixed greens here, and what you're going to do is you're just going to pop that right on top, it's so good! Just wait until you make this, and the great thing about this is too, you can make a big batch of this, like when I make this again, I'm going to make a double batch of this, and then just keep the greens and the quinoa and everything mixture separate and that way I have a great lunch pretty much all week long and when I'm ready to serve it, all I have to do is put some of my salad on some mixed greens and some avocado halves and I'm good to go! Delicious! Now you've got your avocado, cut this in half, like so, and then what I like to do is I just like to cut out little slices, you don't even have to do this, you can just pop them out, and then just arrange the slices around the quinoa, like so. Now the avocados need some loving too, so what you do is you squeeze just a little lemon, this gives them flavor and it helps them from not turning brown so quickly. And then a good pinch of salt. That is it, now this is just going to be for dinner for Joe and I and maybe some leftovers for tomorrow, so I'm just going to go right in because I have such a love affair with the salad, it's not even funny. The avocado, the mint, the lemon, the chickpeas, it's perfect! It's fantastic summer food, great for leftovers, it's good for you, there's nothing about this salad I don't love, go to LauraintheKitchen.com to get the written recipe, let me know if you make it, how you like it, if you recreate it, share a recipe, share a recipe, share a photo, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, whatever you all have desires, I hope you enjoyed spending time with me and I'll see you next time. Bye!