Quinoa Salad With Radishes And Cucumber: A Refreshing Recipe
Rich in plant-based proteins, quinoa is an excellent ingredient for preparing complete and satisfying vegetarian salads. To highlight seasonal vegetables, I suggest you try an easy recipe for quinoa salad with radishes and cucumber.
Ingredients
Here are the ingredients needed to prepare a quinoa salad with radishes and cucumber for 4 people:
120 g of quinoa.
8 radishes.
1 cucumber.
1 ball of mozzarella.
1 small bunch of basil.
1 teaspoon of garlic powder.
2 tablespoons of lemon juice.
4 tablespoons of olive oil.
salt and pepper.
Cooking quinoa
The first step in preparing a quinoa salad with radishes and cucumber is to cook the quinoa.
1- Rinse the quinoa seeds thoroughly and drain them in a fine-mesh strainer.
2- Cook the quinoa in twice its volume of boiling salted water.
3- Cook for approximately 12 to 15 minutes. The seeds are done when small white sprouts appear.
4- At the end of cooking, refresh the quinoa with cold water and let it drain in a fine-mesh strainer.
Cut the ingredients
While the quinoa is cooking, you can prepare and cut the other ingredients that make up the quinoa salad with radishes and cucumber.
1- Cut off the radish tops. If you wish, you can save them for another recipe, such as a radish top soup to avoid waste.
2- Wash the radishes and cut them into thin slices.
3- Peel the cucumber and dice it into small pieces.
4- Drain the mozzarella ball and cut it into cubes.
5- Keep the different ingredients chilled in separate bowls until it's time to assemble.
Preparation of the vinaigrette
To season the quinoa salad with radishes and cucumber, I suggest preparing a basil-flavored vinaigrette.
1- Start by sorting, washing, and drying the basil leaves.
2- Place the basil leaves in a blender bowl with garlic powder, salt, pepper, and lemon juice.
3- Blend once to finely chop the basil leaves.
4- Add the olive oil and blend again until you achieve the consistency of a vinaigrette.
Note: if you do not have fresh basil, you can prepare the same flavored vinaigrette by replacing the basil and garlic with a tablespoon of green Genovese pesto. Simply mix the pesto with the olive oil and lemon juice.
Preparation of quinoa salad
Once you have prepared the dressing and the ingredients for the quinoa salad with radishes and cucumber, all that remains is to assemble these different elements.
1- In a salad bowl, mix the cooked quinoa with the vegetables and the diced mozzarella.
2- You can serve this salad warm or cold.
3- In both cases, add the basil vinaigrette at the time of tasting.
Note: when serving, you can also sprinkle this salad with fresh herbs such as chopped mint or parsley, similar to a traditional Lebanese tabbouleh.
