Green Bean Quinoa Salad: Cooking with Meg Biram

Before fall totally sneaks up on our produce options, Meg Biram and I had to share this summer quinoa salad we put together recently (photographs captured by Abby Jiu) . This is a super basic, healthy salad dish that you can pair with a protein (salmon, shrimp, roasted chicken or even a gorgeous steak or tofu chunks) to make a meal or bring to a party as a side dish. The best part? You can definitely use this as an outline for a fall version with hardy squash (omg butternut squash season!) or mushrooms. 

Summer Quinoa Salad

serves 4

/// Ingredients ///

• 2 cups red quinoa, rinsed and cooked in water or chicken stock
• 2 cups blanched green beans, ends trimmed
• 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
• 4 oz goat cheese
• 1/8 cup chopped almonds
• a few sprigs of lemon thyme
• salt and pepper to taste
• balsamic vinegar dressing

/// Directions/// Cook quinoa to package instructions or check out this Eating Well 101 guide. Be sure to rinse it to remove bitter compounds on the exterior of the quinoa. Blanch clean, cut green beans. To compose the salad, plate quinoa as the bottom layer, then green beans and top with cherry tomatoes, crumbled goat cheese, chopped almonds and sprigs of lemon thyme on the top. Season with salt and pepper and serve with a balsamic vinegar dressing.

Even you're not planning on finishing the whole dish that day, do make the whole batch and bring it for lunch! You literally can.not.go.wrong with this combination for healthy eating. There's protein, grain, veggies and tons of good confetti!