Spicy Quinoa Salad

How convenient to find inspiration in August's Food & Wine, an idea for using garbanzo beans and quinoa! These two staples seem to have reproduced in my fridge this week. (That, and zucchini...want any?)

A mixture of smoked paprika, turmeric, and cumin are behind the "spicy" in this salad...not so much a "hot" spicy, but a wonderful, flavorful spicy that stands on its own, or livens up a more mellow entree. We enjoyed it with a few slices of grilled steak over salad greens.

Spicy Quinoa Salad
serves 6 - 8

4 cups cooked quinoa (see Amy's Kitchen Coach Tips below)

1 cup garbanzo beans (preferably home cooked, see Hummus from 8/21/08)
2 zucchini, quartered lengthwise, grilled then chopped
2 scallions, finely diced
a few cilantro leaves, if you like them and if you have them

3 tablespoons olive oil
Juice from ½ lemon
1 teaspoon each of the following (sea salt, tumeric, smokey paprika, cumin)

1. Lightly coat the zucchini stalks with olive oil and grill or broil until softened a bit. Let cool until you can handle them, then chop into pieces.

2. Stir together cooked quinoa, garbanzo beans, zucchini, scallions, and cilantro.

3. Sprinkle the spices over the quinoa mixture and stir to combine. Drizzle the olive oil and lemon juice over the quinoa mixture and stir to combine.

Amy's Kitchen Coach Tips

• Cook quinoa just like rice-- in a rice cooker!
• Be sure to rinse quinoa with water a few times before you start cooking. The seeds have a soapy coating to deter pests; harmless to us, but not very tasty. Just put the quinoa in a bowl of water, swish, and pour off the water, two or three times.