Totally Green Salad with Quinoa

Some say you eat first with your eyes. The sight of the dish in front of you predisposes you positively or negatively.  This is what happens with this salad. The sight of it is just enough. Its special ingredients are combined into an original but really enjoyable, full of flavors, salad. “Green” in every sense of the word,  it contains, besides the quinoa, delicious and sweet peas, creamy avocado, pistachios, a delicious pesto with basil and coriander and  fragrant lime.

This is more than a simple healthy salad with vegetables and quinoa. It is lively, full of fresh, Greek and gently perfumes. Let’s look at the recipe:

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Servings: 2-4

Ingredients:

• 1 ¼ cup cooked quinoa (read cooking instructions here)
• 1 ¼ cup boiled peas
• 1 avocado, diced
• ¼ cup pistachios, coarsely chopped
• 1 ½ tablespoon fresh lime juice, or lemon juice (I used lime juice)
• fresh mint

for basil-cilantro pesto:

• ½ cup fresh coriander leaves
• ½ cup fresh basil
• 3 tablespoons pistachios
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice, or lemon juice (I used lime juice)
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• ¼ cup crumbled feta or soft goat cheese (I used feta)
• ¾ teaspoon of pepper
• Salt and pepper

Instructions:

1. Prepare the pesto by mixing all ingredients in a food processor.
2. In a bowl, combine the cooked quinoa, peas, avocado and lime juice. Add the pesto and mix well.
3. Pour over pistachios and fresh mint and serve.

Notes:

If you are a fan of basil, you can add basil leaves in the salad. I do not like so much basil flavor, I wanted to feel all ingredients.

The salad can be eaten as a main dish, it is very filling. If however you use it as a side dish to  grilled chicken, you have a full meal.

If you are a vegan, you can replace the cheese in pesto with ¼ avocado.

In case you come up with pesto leftover, you can make a delicious sandwich with toasted whole meal bread, soft goat cheese, green vegetables of your choice (eg arugula, lettuce, cilantro, baby spinach) and of course pesto.

The nutritional value calculated for 4 servings. The salad is rich in potassium, sodium and vitamins A, C, E and B vitamins also contain significant amounts of calcium, folate, iron, magnesium, manganese and phosphorus.

I found the recipe of the totally green salad with quinoa here and altered it a bit.

 

 

Nutritional Facts per Serving
Calories	Carbohydrates	Sugars	Total Fat	Saturated Fat	Proteins	Dietary Fibers
308.3	26.9	3.2	19.7	3.5	10.1	5.7