Black bean, corn, and avocado salad on quinoa

I normally wouldn't look for taste sensations on the back of a quinoa box. Yes, okay, it's a protein-high grain that's really good for you. But that's exactly what it tastes like. I always say I want to eat more quinoa and less meat, but it's hard to get excited about a main course of highly nutritious wallpaper paste. That's a level of virtue I lack.

But we did find this really good recipe on the back of a box of red quinoa from Trader Joes.

The recipe:
1 cup red quinoa, cooked with 2 cups chicken or veggie broth (that's the bed for the salad)
1 15-oz can of black beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups roasted corn kernels (about 2 good-sized ears - more on that below)
1 avocado, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 pint grape tomatoes
1/2 cup red onion, sliced
3/4 cup cilantro salad dressing
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
zest of one lime
salt and pepper

Changes we make:
We use 1.5 - 2 avocados instead of 1.
Skip the cilantro dressing, and substitute the juice of the lime along with the zest.


Roasted corn kernels

This step is SO worth the trouble. Roasted corn is sweeter, better, and doesn't add as much water to the recipe as canned or frozen or boiled corn.

You can roast corn a lot of ways - you can soak the whole ears with husks in water for 30 min and then grill on high, which is essentially steaming the corn in its shuck. Very tender, but takes forever. Or you can strip it bare, paint with olive oil, and then commit to standing over it to turn it every thirty seconds - it burns fast.

We take the middle road: Shuck the ears, paint with EVOO, and then wrap them tightly in foil. Grill on medium for about 15 minutes, turning a quarter every 3 min or so. They won't be as blackened as if you'd grilled them bare, but they won't be as likely to burn, either. After 15 minutes, strip off the foil and grill bare for 3-5 more minutes, bumping up the heat a bit and turning every minute or so. When you start seeing a little black on the ears, they're done.

Let them cool, then slice off the kernels.

Meantime, get the quinoa going. which takes about 20 minutes start to finish, and start chopping. Mix the corn kernels, the beans, and everything else BUT the quinoa in a big bowl. Toss to coat with the oil.

Put the quinoa down as a bed on the plate, add the salad on top, and mix. Salt and pepper on the plate (the quinoa brings some salt, too, especially if you used salty broth.) You'll never notice the healthy stuff.