Mexican Quinoa Salad

A quick and easy quinoa salad with Mexican themed ingredients and flavors!

I am a fan of Mexican inspired flavours and ingredients and they go really well in a light and healthy salad like this Mexican quinoa salad! This salad is super easy to make, you basically cook the quinoa, mix all of the salad ingredients, make the dressing and toss the salad and the dressing together! The Salad includes diced, tomatoes, black beans, corn, onion, jalapeno, and cilantro with some optional crumbly cheese. The dressing is a simple combination of oil with citrus juice, lime and orange, along with cumin, paprika and chipotle chili powder. This Mexican style quinoa salad is nice and fresh, the perfect side for any meal or even as a light meal all by itself!

Mexican Quinoa Salad

Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 20 minutes Total Time: 30 minutes Servings: 6

ingredients

For the salad:

1 cup quinoa

2 cups water (or vegetable broth)

1 cup tomato, diced

1 cup black beans, rinsed and drained (or cooked)

1 cup corn (fresh or thawed)

1/4 cup red onion, diced (or green onions)

1 jalapeno, finely diced

1/4 cup cilantro, chopped

1/4 cup queso fresco (or feta), crumbled (optional)

For the dressing:

2 tablespoons oil

2 tablespoons lime juice

2 tablespoons orange juice

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

1 teaspoon chipotle chili powder

1/2 teaspoon oregano

salt and pepper to taste

directions

For the salad:

Bring the quinoa and water to a boil in a medium saucepan, reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes before turning off the heat and letting it sit, covered, for 5 minutes.

Optionally let the quinoa cool to room temperature.

Mix the quinoa, tomatoes, black beans, corn, onion, jalapeno, cilantro, cheese and the dressing and enjoy!