Southwest Mango Quinoa Salad

This recipe is so yummy! This one comes from Gina at SkinnyTaste.com. I love her recipes. She's all about healthy, low-fat recipes and because of this, many of them are vegetarian friendly or easily adaptable. This one can be a great side dish or jazzed up a bit as a main meal. We really enjoy this one with tortilla chips, making it more like a "dip" but hearty. When we do it as our main meal, I will shred up some cheese and chop up some avocado to put on top. I've even thought about grilling up a few chicken breasts to have with it for the kids and I. And I think the flavor of this salad just gets better with a little time in the refrigerator, so it's perfect as leftovers.

Once again I made just a few changes to the original recipe to make it my own. First, I doubled the amount of everything in the recipe, except for the vegetables. I felt like this gave a better ratio of grain to vegetable, making it a more hearty meal. I also omitted the jalapeno pepper because I don't like heat in my food, so the husband just adds hot sauce to his. I also added a tsp of sugar to the dressing because I felt like it needed it to balance out the lemon and spices, but just omit it if you don't want the sugar; it shouldn't change the flavors at all. Lastly, just a quick note, I almost always use red onion in this recipe, but when I made it, as pictured above, I used a regular yellow onion and it was still delicious. Enjoy!

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Southwestern Mango Quinoa Salad
Prep time: 10 min Cook Time: 15 min Servings: 6 (as a full meal)

1 cup dried quinoa, rinsed
2 cups vegetable broth
1 15 oz can corn, drained (or 1.5 cups frozen, defrosted)
1 15oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 large red bell pepper, chopped
1 large mango, chopped
1/2 large red onion, diced
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
juice from 2 lemons
3 TB olive oil
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

• Start by adding vegetable broth and quinoa to a medium sized pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let summer for 10 minutes or until all the liquid is absorbed. 
• While quinoa is summering, add corn, black beans, red bell pepper, mango, onion and cilantro to a large bowl.
• Mix together lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, cumin, chili powder and turmeric and pour over vegetables, mixing to combine.
• After quinoa is done cooking, pour into a separate bowl and let cool to room temperature (you can always stick it in the refrigerator or freezer to speed this process up)
• Add cooled quinoa to vegetable mixture and mix to combine. 
• Add salt and pepper to taste 
• Serve immediately or refrigerate until you're ready to serve