Passover finished yesterday which means I can go back to my everyday foods. Unfortunately, my fridge is pretty empty so I don’t have much fresh produce right now. Until we can get to a grocery store, probably on the weekend, I will be using mostly pantry items for my cooking – we have beans, lentils, pasta, tomato passata and some meat in the freezer. I’m excited to see what I can make with the limited selection. I will have the first of these new/non-Passover recipes on Monday 🙂

For now though, here is an easy quinoa salad that I made over Passover. I only learned recently that I can eat quinoa on Passover so I was pretty happy. It is a nice matzah-free side dish.

This was salad was so easy to make. I just used some tri-colour quinoa (you could use regular quinoa too), and mixed that with some crunchy veggies and a bright dressing. Delicious things don’t need to be complicated.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup uncooked quinoa
• 2 cups water
• 3/4 cup cucumber, chopped
• 3/4 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper

Directions:

1. Combine quinoa and water in medium pot. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then reduce heat to low, stir, cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
2. In small bowl, combine oil, vinegar, lemon juice, sugar, salt and pepper. Taste dressing and adjust seasoning if necessary.
3. Put the quinoa into a large bowl, don’t worry if it is not totally cooled yet. Add in cucumber and tomato and mix with quinoa. Pour dressing over everything and toss to combine.
4. Serve immediately or cover and refrigerate until ready to eat. Enjoy. Serves 4.