Healthy food that tastes good? Red and white quinoa salad with kale and tahini dressing is loaded with protein, crunchy almonds, sour kumquats, and nutritional superfood kale.
The spicy citrus tahini dressing combines ginger, jalapeños, garlic, cilantro, miso, and lime with tahini. Tahini is a paste made with sesame seeds that is primarily used in middle eastern cuisine. Tahini is used in hummus, baba ghanoush, and halvah. It can also be used as a substitute for butter and other animal fats in baking recipes to create vegan desserts. Have you ever tried a tahini cookie?
The tahini dressing is easy to prepare. All of the ingredients are placed in a food processor or blender and pureed until a smooth silky dressing is formed.
I like to mix the red and white quinoa for this quinoa salad. It gives the salad color and interest. I used lacinato kale also known as Tuscan or dinosaur kale for this recipe. You can also use curly kale or Russina kale if you prefer. When incorporating kale into most recipes, you should always remove the tough stems and just use the leafy green part of the kale.
The kale can be chopped before adding it to the quinoa. I like to add the chopped kale to the warm quinoa. This allows it to tenderize and wilt.
Because its the season for kumquats and I have such an abundance of the sweet and sour fruits, I decided to add them to the quinoa salad. You could also use other types of seasonal citrus such as mandarins, tangerines, blood oranges or regular oranges. Peel the citrus and cut into segments or supremes to add to the quinoa salad. I love the contrast that this provides in color and taste.
Once you have all of the pieces and parts prepared, you can make either individual plates or a platter with the quinoa salad.
Line the plate with mixed salad greens. Artfully arrange the quinoa kale mixture on the bed of greens. You may want to slice a few more kumquats and scatter a few more almonds on top of the salad. You may also choose to garnish the salad with slices of avocado. You have created a masterpiece! Now enjoy your quinoa salad!
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