Quinoa and Vegetable Salad Recipe

If you aren't familiar with quinoa (pronounced keen-wa), you're in for a treat. Quinoa is a light and fluffy whole grain that goes with just about anything. It's power packed with protein, iron, potassium, and several B vitamins. It's also a good source of magnesium, zinc, copper, and manganese, and has some folic acid.

Ingredients:

1 cup of quinoa
1/2 cucumber, peeled and chopped into bite-size pieces
1 tomato, chopped into bite size pieces
1 avocado, seeded, scooped out, and cut into small pieces
Juice of 1/2 to 1 lemon
Sea salt, to taste

Directions:

Combine quinoa in a pot with 2 cups of spring or filtered water. Bring to a boil, then keep on low heat with lid on. Check occasionally. When you don't see any water in the pot, it's done. Allow quinoa to cool in a large salad bowl for around 15 minutes.

Add all chopped vegetables to quinoa. Add lemon juice. Add salt, if desired. Toss well, and enjoy this hearty and healthy grain salad.