[Recipe] Indian Spiced Quinoa Salad

Have you ever packed a perfectly good lunch, only to get to work and realize that you no longer want to eat that particular lunch? Well, sure you have.

Have you ever gone to the grocery store and stared through the glass at the various delicious store made cold salads, wishing you had the recipes to make them yourself for a fraction of the price the store charges for them? Well, sure you have.

Well, put those situations together and you have a salad envy lunch box meltdown.

Not. Good.

But fear not, there are solutions to these problems my friends! You really only need to identify a few key ingredients in these salads, and spend a few minutes searching for recipes and you can make your own delicious salads to take for lunch!

Due to this ingenuity, my co-workers will envy MY lunch this week, kids. Yessssssss! If you don’t want to envy my lunch, you should try making it yourself.

Here’s what you’ll need:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
3/4 cup quinoa
1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 cups broth
1 (14 ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts
1/2 cup raisins, soaked in hot water and drained (optional, but delicious)
1/4 cup chopped green onion (optional)
1/2 tablespoon honey (optional)

Here’s what you need to do:

Stir together the olive oil, onion, and garlic in a saucepan over medium heat until the onion has softened and turned translucent, about 5 minutes.

Stir in the quinoa, curry powder, salt, pepper, cumin, cinnamon, and chicken stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer 20 minutes until the quinoa is tender.