Quinoa Salad with Apples and Cranberries in Recipes

• 1 cup Quinoa (red or white)
• 2 apples (any kind, although crisper varieties work best)
• 1 cup dried cranberries (with as little sugar added as possible, unless you like the sweeter ones)
• Salt
• Black pepper
• Garlic (chopped, or powder)
• Butterhead lettuce

Optional:

• Cooked yellow beets
• Tomato

1. Wash quinoa vigorously in a strainer, the make quinoa by cooking it in a pot (or rice cooker) at a ratio of 2:1; 2 cups of water to 1 cup of quinoa. Should cook for about 20 minutes. Mix in salt, black pepper, and garlic to taste.
2. Cut apples into small cubes.
3. When quinoa is done, put apples, cranberries and other ingredients into pot and stir together.
4. Wash and cut/rip lettuce apart immediately before serving. Spoon quinoa mixture onto lettuce on plate.

This is a dish Lindsey and I came up with one night when we didn't have much in the apartment to eat, and it was too late to go to the store. The garlic/pepper in the quinoa and apples/cranberries are such a great mixture of savory and sweet. Like the cream of chicken over rice recipe, cooking the quinoa in chicken or vegetable broth is also a nice touch, but as always be careful of your salt levels. (I tend towards chicken stock because it has less salt, but that's not always the case...) It's a nice light meal, and yet very filling!