Quinoa Confetti Salad: A Lunchtime Standby

Vegan lunches can -- and should -- be a lot more interesting than bare salads or carrot sticks and hummus. New Veganism columnist Gena Hamshaw will be sharing inspiration for midday meals that stave off both hunger and boredom.

Today: A formula for quinoa confetti salad that will carry you through every season -- no matter what's in the fridge.

If you were to survey my apartment, you’d find it lacking in certain essentials: band aids, scotch tape, a flashlight. What you’d find quite a lot of, though, is quinoa. I tend to make heaps of it over the weekend, then store it in the fridge and use it all week. And when there’s lots of quinoa, there’s lots of quinoa confetti salad.

This salad changes as the seasons and the contents of my fridge change, but the basic formula is always the same: 2 to 4 cups of cooked quinoa, whatever veggies and legumes I have in my fridge, lemon, olive oil, sea salt, pepper. I often finish it off with a drizzle of olive oil or a hunk of avocado, and serve it atop crunchy, fresh greens. Today’s assortment was a celebration of spring greens (kale) and my first batch of summer squash, mixed with crunchy red peppers over a bed of spinach. I had black beans at the ready, but lentils, edamame, and other beans would also be great here, as would a sprinkle of toasted nuts or seeds.

Photo by Gena Hamshaw