Thai Style Black Quinoa Salad

A colourful Thai style black quinoa salad with the perfect blend of salty, sweet, spicy and tart.

CookingAddic Normally when I go to pick up quinoa they only have the white and red varieties but I recently came across black quinoa which I immediately picked up and I have been just itching to use it ever since. After thinking about it for a while I decided that the black quinoa would go well in a bright Thai inspired salad where it would nicely offset all of the colours. Sweet and juicy yellow mangoes seemed like a great place to start with the colours in the salad quickly followed by some red bell peppers and then some green onions, fresh mint and cilantro.

One of the things that I like about Asian and Thai cuisines is that they often balance the sweet, salty, tart and spicy aspects of a dish with wonderful results so I tried to do that here making the dressing with salty fish sauce, sweet sugar, tart lime juice and spicy sriracha along whit a birds eye chili for heat. I finished the salad off with some chopped peanuts and some toasted coconut flakes. 

Ingredients

• 1 cup black quinoa, rinsed well
• 2 cups water
• 1 red pepper, diced
• 1 mango, stoned, scooped and diced
• 3 green onions, sliced
• 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
• 1/4 cup mint, chopped
• 1 birds eye chili, chopped
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce or soy sauce for vegetarian
• 2 teaspoons palm or brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon sriracha or to taste
• 1 lime, juice and zest
• 1/4 cup peanuts, coarsely chopped
• 1 tablespoon coconut flakes, toasted

Read:

• Okonomiyaki (Hiroshima Style)
• Strawberry, Bacon and Goat Cheese Strata with Balsamic Syrup
• Taco Casserole

Instructions

1. Bring the quinoa and water to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, until the quinoa is tender and the water is absorbed, about 15 minutes.
2. Remove from heat and let sit, covered, for 5 minutes.
3. Mix the quinoa, red pepper, yellow mango, green onions, cilantro, mint and chili in a large bowl.
4. Mix the fish sauce, sugar, sriracha, lime juice and zest in a small bowl.
5. Toss the salad in the dressing and serve topped with the peanuts and coconut flakes.