With all the partying and over eating over the weekend, its time now to watch out for that growing flab near the belly!! Give your week a healthy start with some awesomely delicious and healthy food that not just take care of the extra fat but come with scores of other health benefits like a healthy & glowing skin, improved digestion, better vision and lustrous hair!

Wondering what this wonder-food could be?! It’s our very own kitchen Salad and that too with the added flavour of Organic Quinoa! A big bowl of Quinoa Vegetable Salad can be your best friend if you a salad lover and looking for something new to add to your salad bowl! What’s more, it comes laden with health through its two principal ingredients:

• Organic Quinoa: Touted as a complete food for its rich protein, calcium and mineral contents. It is one of the biggest sources of protein and is lowest on carbs among the cereals. So a great ingredient to include in your daily meal if weight loss is something you are looking at. For the slim folks, it adds much more calcium and minerals than your usual glassful of milk!!
• Veggies: We all know the health benefits that green leafy vegetables bring to the table. They are a great way to add those deficient Vitamins and minerals to your body.

Let’s check out a couple of great recipes that you can try your hands on for that sumptuous salad spread on your table this week!

Recipe 1: Green Goddess Quinoa Salad

Ingredients:

To prepare this salad, you would require:

• 2 cups - Organic quinoa, cooked
• 2 cups - cherry tomatoes (halved)
• 2 cups - spinach leaves
• ½ cup Magic Green Sauce

You can add-in some of these to make your Quinoa Salad even more tempting and tasty!

• Bite-sized pieces of some fresh Mozzarella cheese
• Some crushed almonds
• Grilled veggies like zucchini (or even grilled chicken for the non-vegetarian lovers!)

Preparing Magic Green Sauce:

Take1 avocado, 2 garlic cloves, a cup of parsley and cilantro leaves, 1 jalapeño (with the ribs and seeds removed),

1/2 cup water, olive oil and pistachios each, 1 tsp salt and juice of one lime and churn these in a blender. Your Magic Green Sauce is ready, now. Keep this aside.

Preparing the Salad:

For the Salad, cook the organic quinoa in advance and allow it to cool off for a few hours. Toss all the above ingredients into a bowl and empty ½ cup of the Magic Green Sauce as well. Mix thoroughly. You Green Goddess Quinoa Salad is ready to lay on the table!!

Recipe 2: Quinoa Vegetable Salad

This makes for an awesomely healthy and tasty dish, light on the tummy and great for the body!!

Ingredients:

For this recipe you would require:

2 cups Organic quinoa

½ cupof diced cucumber

½ cup corn kernels

¼ cup diced red onion and yellow or purple onion each

1 tbsp. minced garlic

1 ½ tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro

1 tbsp. chopped fresh mint

¾ cup fresh tomatoes (diced)

¾ cup carrots (diced into small pieces)

½ cup yellow bell pepper (diced)

3 tbsp. vinegar

¼ tsp ground black pepper

2 tbsp.olive oil

1 tsp canola oil

2 ½ cups water

2 tsp salt, or to taste

Preparing The Salad:

Heat the canola oil over medium heat, in a saucepan. Stir in the garlic with ¼ cup of the diced onionsand cook until they turn translucent (This takes approximately 5 minutes). Add the water, 2 tsp salt and ¼ tsp black pepper and bring to a boil; stir in the organic quinoa and cover the saucepan. Now reduce heat to medium-low and allow to simmer until the quinoa is tender. Drain any extra water that remains after this using a mesh strainer and transfer this mixture into a mixing bowl and allow to cool. (You may refrigerate to speed up the cooling)

Add the cucumber, corn kernels, tomato, carrots, bell pepperand 1/4 cup red onion to the quinoa mixture. Now season with cilantro, mint, 1 tsp salt, and ¼ tsp black pepper. Drizzle the olive oil and vinegar over the salad and stir gently until evenly mixed.

These Salads are not just for the health conscious folks out there, looking for some healthy food, but a great way to treat people-  be it a 1-year-old or your parents and grandparents too. So announce your very first Quinoa Salad party today!!

Curious about the health benefits of organic quinoa! Click here!!