This Apple Cranberry Quinoa is a great fall lunch. It is a little sweet and tart. The dressing is addictive and goes really well with the apples and spinach.
Start by cooking your quinoa. I decided to use regular white quinoa because I thought it would look pretty with the green apples and spinach. However, you could use any color of quinoa.
While the quinoa is cooking, make the Shallot-Dijon Dressing. I couldn’t stop tasting the dressing, it is an amazing combination of flavors. You could easily use it on any spinach salad.
First mix in the dressing, then the chopped parsley.
Finally, mix in the remaining fruit and vegetables and mix well. I like to use these apple juice sweetened dried cranberries. These ones are from Dean’s Natural Food Market, and they are such a gorgeous red color. They also have them at Whole Foods, but I like these best.
Scoop over a cup of spinach and enjoy!
Apple Cranberry Quinoa
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 25 minutes
Servings: 4-5
Ingredients:
Dressing:
- 1 Tbsp of shallots, finely chopped
- 1 Tbsp + 1 tsp red wine vinegar
- 1 Tbsp + 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tsp sea salt
- ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
Salad:
- ¾ cup of quinoa
- 2-3 Tbsps. of parsley
- 2 granny smith apples, cubed
- 3 stalks of celery, sliced
- 1 cup of edamame
- ½ cup of dried cranberries
- ½ cup of pecans (I used maple glazed pecans, but plain are fine too)
- 5 cups of baby spinach
Instructions:
- Cook quinoa according to directions on package and let cool
- Combine ingredients for dressing in a small bowl and whisk together.
- Pour dressing over the cooled quinoa and mix together well. Then add the chopped parsley and mix again well.
- Add apples, celery, edamame, cranberries, and pecans and mix together.
- Serve over a bed of baby spinach.
- Keeps for about 3 days in the fridge.
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