Today's recipe for a Quinoa Vegetable Salad is the perfect way to use up your garden harvest right now. It uses any and ALL vegetables . . . and quinoa. This one is ridiculously quick and easy to make, and it's ready at a moment's notice for a nice lunch or as part of an easy weeknight dinner. Using quinoa wasn't something that I would have done too readily a few years ago, but I've been using it more and more recently. It's delicious and it takes on the flavor of whatever dressing or sauce you put on it. It's great in salads like this, in grain bowls, or in pancakes or muffins for a little something extra. I have to say - I made this one up - again. Let's see how it turns out. Spoiler alert - it's really, really good! 
Here is the recipe as I made it:
Quinoa Vegetable Salad
Cook according to package instructions:
1 cup uncooked quinoa
Cool and put into a large mixing bowl.
Add:
2-3 cups (or more, if you want more veggies) fresh, chopped vegetables (I used cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, peppers, red onion, and I threw in some frozen green beans and peas)
Dressing
Mix up in a jar:
juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup olive oil (you can add more, if you like, but I found that if you use too much, it can get a bit greasy)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 Tablespoon each of any fresh herbs you like (I used basil, parsley, lemon thyme)
salt and pepper to taste
Put the lid on your jar and give it a good shake.
Pour dressing over top of all and combine.
Chill.
The quinoa is under there - I just used a lot of vegetables! You can totally use all frozen veggies if you want to, but if you have a garden, this is the salad for you!
I love, love, love using the herbs from my herb pots, and this year was the best herb growing year I've ever had! I used a lot in here!
I might just keep a jar of this dressing around for other things! It's so good and fragrant!
Mix it all together - this is easy to double - and you will probably want to do that because it goes fast.
It's so pretty - totally fresh and delicious!
I think I'm making this salad about once a week right now. This one is so, so good and so, so easy to pull together. If you don't want to use frozen veg and you don't have a garden, how about supporting your local farmer's market? Get a variety of colorful fresh veggies and go crazy! I know you're going to love this colorful and ridiculously tasty Quinoa Vegetable Salad!
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