Easy Side Item: Lemon Artichoke and Quinoa Salad

I stumbled across this great recipe for Lemony Artichoke & Quinoa Salad from budgetbytes. It is a refrigerator salad (i.e. doesn’t get limp or soggy) that works great as a side dish or as a light entrée. When I made this recipe I add some crumbled feta cheese (see picture), which I thought was a nice addition to the other flavors in this salad.

Lemon Artichoke Quinoa Salad

Ingredients

• 1 cup quinoa 
• 1 fresh lemon 
• 1/4 cup olive oil 
• 2 cloves garlic, minced 
• 1 tsp salt 
• freshly cracked pepper 
• 1 13oz. can quartered artichoke hearts (in water or oil, with or without herbs)
• 1 red bell pepper 
• 1 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1 15oz. can chickpeas

Cooking Instructions

1. Rinse the quinoa well in a fine wire mesh sieve. Place the rinsed quinoa in a pot with 1.75 cups water. Place a lid on the pot, turn the heat on to high, and allow the water to come to a boil. Once it reaches a full boil, turn the heat down to low and let it simmer for 15 minutes (lid on).
2. While the quinoa is cooking, prepare the lemon garlic dressing. Zest the lemon, then squeeze the juice (you’ll need 1/4 to 1/3 cup juice). Add the lemon juice and 1 tsp of the zest to a bowl or jar along with the olive oil, minced garlic, salt, and some freshly cracked pepper (10-15 cranks of a pepper mill). Whisk the ingredients together or close the jar and shake until they are combined. Set the dressing aside.
3. After the quinoa has cooked, spread it out into a casserole dish or other wide shallow dish and refrigerate uncovered for about 15 minutes to cool it down.
4. While the quinoa is cooling, prepare the rest of the salad ingredients. Drain the artichoke hearts and roughly chop them into smaller pieces. Finely dice the red bell pepper. Roughly chop the parsley. Rinse and drain the chickpeas. Place the artichoke hearts, bell pepper, parsley, and chickpeas in a large bowl.
5. Once the quinoa has cooled, add it to the bowl with the other salad ingredients. Toss gently to combine, then drizzle the lemon garlic dressing over top. Gently toss again until everything is coated in dressing. Serve immediately or refrigerate up to 4-5 days.

Two other great recipes I have tried recently from BudgetBytes:

Creamy White Bean & Spinach Quesadillas

Easy Cauliflower & Chickpea Masala

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