I’ve been trying to learn to cook, it’s not easy, but I’ve stumbled upon a great recipe that me and my valentine love, maybe yours will too! And if you’re solo this year, you’ll fall in love with this salad.
I will skip the long blog story about how I came across this recipe since everyone scrolls past that and right to the ingredients and instructions anyway, am I right?
I found this Apple Kale Quinoa Salad recipe from The Greenbacks Gal and it sounded it like something I could handle, wouldn’t have to buy too many elaborate ingredients for, and wouldn’t take all day to make. It’s become quite the hit for all of these reasons, oh and because it tastes awesome! I’ve even doubled the original recipe since it disappears at a rapid rate at my house.
Here’s What
– 1 cup quinoa (yields 3 cups cooked)
– a bunch of kale
– 2 apples
– feta cheese for topping
– 1/2 extra virgin olive oil
– juice of 1/2 a lemon
– 2-3 tbsp honey
– 1 tbsp mustard
– salt and pepper to taste
Here’s How
1. Measure a cup of uncooked quinoa, and rinse it. At first, I didn’t understand the point of rinsing this tiny grain, it’s easy to make a mess of and it seems like a step I could skip. Don’t! It really does make it taste better and does get rid of the weird soapy taste.
2. Put into a pot on the stove and add two cups of water. Once at a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer (set stove to low) and cover with the lid.
3. Set a timer for 20 minutes and dance in your kitchen (this is not a required step, but it does make cooking more fun…)
4. DING! Stop dancing in 20 minutes to open the lid and MAGIC! You have cooked quinoa. (It must have been the dancing…)
5. Throw it in a bowl and stick in the fridge. Although if you live in a cold climate like me, you can even let it cool outside (-11c is a little colder than my fridge so…it’s faster).
6. While this is cooling you can prepare the other ingredients and dressing:
– 2 apples, cut up into bite-sized pieces, whatever kind of apples you like
– kale, lots of it, it’s good for you, put as much as you think you’ll eat
– crumbled feta cheese, not much to prepare, you can crumble it on top at the end if you like
Dressing:
– 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
– juice of 1/2 a lemon (or a couple squirts of lemon juice for some zing)
– 2-3 tablespoons honey
– 1 tablespoon mustard
– salt and pepper to taste
7. Whisk the dressing together like you’re a professional dressing-making whisker.
8. Once your quinoa is cooled, voila! Mix in the apples, kale, and dressing. We are cheesy loving people at my house, so we add feta cheese crumbled on top. Really, is the cheese going to make it worse? No brainer.
9. EAT IT and feel fancy, healthy and marvelous. You can store it in the fridge for a day or 2, I’m not sure how long it keeps because it really doesn’t last longer than that at my house!
Take care of yourself and those you love eating healthy the easy way! If you have any extra or leftover kale, why not try home-made kale chips? They’ll save you a bundle.
Happy Valentines day,
Anna
