When the weather starts to heat up outside, the last thing I want to do is slave over a hot stove to make dinner. Lucky for me, my husband loves cool summer salads just as much as I do.
Instead of making something slathered in mayonnaise or oil, I opted for something healthy and refreshing. There’s nothing more refreshing to me than lemon. When you pair lemon with basil, your dish instantly screams summer. To make the dish more complete, I also included protein packed chickpeas and quinoa.
The result is a sensationally sizzling summer salad.
Lemon Basil Quinoa Salad
Ingredients:
- 1 cup quinoa
- 1 1/2 cup water
- 2 15 ounce cans of chickpeas
- 1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
- 1/2 cup tightly packed fresh basil
- 1 shallot
- 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon vinegar
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- dash of pepper
Method:
Prepare your ingredients by dicing the shallot and the basil. Next add quinoa, water, shallot, basil and italian seasoning to a rice cooker. Cook on boil/simmer setting for 12 minutes. If you don’t have a rice cooker, you can use a regular stove top pan. Add your ingredients to the pan, bring to a boil and then simmer for 12 minutes. (P.S. A rice cooker is totally worth the investment. It cooks food to perfection every single time).
While your quinoa is cooking, you can make your dressing. Add the oil, vinegar, lemon juice, oregano, garlic powder, dijon mustard, salt and pepper to a small bowl and whisk.
Now drain and rinse chickpeas and add them to a large bowl.
When the quinoa is finished cooking, add it to the large bowl with the chickpeas, then pour your dressing on top. Gently stir the mixture together until dressing is evenly covering the chickpeas and quinoa.
You can either eat the salad like this or allow it to refrigerate for 1 hour or so.
This salad was super quick to put together. I did it right before we left for church…we may have also been a few minutes late 
I love that the nut and crunch that the chickpeas and quinoa provide together. The lemon adds an excellent quench to keep the warm weather at bay, while the basil cools the salad down.
It was seriously so delicious and such a wonderfully complete meal!
What foods to you make in the summer to beat the heat?
