Summer Quinoa Shrimp Salad

Quinoa - It's good stuff.  I had never heard of it until about a year ago.  When I first started eating it, I wasn't impressed, but since going gluten-free, I'm in love with it.  It does not have much flavor all by itself - similar to how plain rice is bland, but when you fix it up, it has a lot of potential.  Here's my first quinoa invention - Summer Quinoa Shrimp Salad-

Ingredients:

- 2 dozen raw shrimp

- 1 cup quinoa cooked according to package instructions

- 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

- 1 1/2 cups frozen corn, thawed

- 1 red bell pepper, diced

- 1 1/2 cups cherry tomatoes, cut in half

- 1 avocado, diced

- 1 lemon

- 3 tablespoons olive oil

- 1 large clove of garlic, minced

- salt and pepper to taste

 

While the quinoa is cooking, grill the shrimp.  You could just grill the shrimp without marinating it, but we like to give it a little more flavor.  We let the shrimp marinate in a quick marinade that we mix up and let it marinade 30 minutes to 1 hour before cooking it.  This is the marinade: 1/4 cup olive oil, 1 tablespoons of honey, and 1/2 teaspoon chili powder.  Don't over cook the shrimp - cook them just until they're done -

Once the quinoa is finished cooking, put the quinoa, black beans, corn, bell pepper, and tomatoes in a large bowl.  Then, juice the lemon in a separate bowl and mix in the olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper.  Pour the lemon mixture over the large bowl and then mix everything together-

Now dice up the avocado and put the avocado with the shrimp on the top of the quinoa mixture.

And there you have it... a wholesome and fresh summer dinner.  We ate it outside.  Yum!