Now that it’s getting a bit warmer out, I like to eat lighter. I mean, who doesn’t, right? One of the biggest aspects of my “eat light” plan is basically just incorporating more salads as meals into my weekly diet. During the spring and summer, I like to take advantage of all of the abundant produce and make crazy-huge salads that are just bursting with veggie goodness. This salad isn’t particularly huge, but it’s still got veggie goodness: quinoa adds a bit of protein and spinach gets you some vitamin K and folate. The sweet and juicy flavor of the grapes combined with the salty feta and crunchy sunflower seeds makes for a perfect salad. I ate mine for lunch, but this would be great alongside grilled chicken or vegetables, too!
Quinoa, Grape and Spinach Salad
makes 2 servings
total time: 5 minutes
total hands on time: 5 minutes
What you’ll need:
- 2 handfuls (cups) of fresh spinach, torn
- 1/2 cup cooked quinoa
- 20-25 grapes (I used red)
- 1 tbsp shelled sunflower seeds
- crumbled feta cheese to your taste
- fresh ground black pepper to your taste
for the dressing:
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- garlic powder
Directions:
1. Make sure the quinoa is fully cooked before beginning to make the salad. It usually takes about 10-15 minutes and uses a 1:2 ratio of quinoa to water or broth.
2. Place spinach in a large bowl and add quinoa, grapes and sunflower seeds.
3. Make the dressing by combining oil, vinegar and garlic powder in a small bowl or jar. Mix well.
4. Toss dressing onto other ingredients and toss to coat.
5. Serve the salad sprinkled with feta and black pepper.
If you’d like this to be even crunchier, you might add a couple of tablespoons or walnuts or almonds. I also think this salad would be delicious with goat cheese instead of feta or arugula instead of spinach.
