"Stoplight" Salad

I have come to agree with the opinion of most of the vegetarian community that there are traditional “salads” and then there are salads. The first is your classic lettuce-tomato-cucumber combo with gobs of dressing. The second is pretty much anything you want it to be. This recipe also goes along with my line of thinking that skinny chicks may not just eat salads, but skinny chicks can definitely eat salad when they want to!


Ingredients
½ cup quinoa
1 cup water
4-5 cloves garlic, minced
Olive oil non-stick cooking spray
¼ cup frozen edamame
1 zucchini, cut into quarters
½ red bell pepper, sliced
½ yellow bell pepper, sliced (or any other combo of colors)
1 cup spinach
2 tsp lemon juice
¼ cup mango, sliced

Apparatus
Pot
Pan
Knife
Spatula

Process
1)Place water in pot and set to medium-high heat. When water begins to boil, add quinoa and let cook until all water is absorbed.
2)Spray pan with cooking spray and place garlic and edamame in pan. Sauté on medium-high heat for approximately 2 minutes.
3)Add peppers and zucchini to pan, and sauté for 2-3 more minutes, not allowing vegetables to get soft.
4)When quinoa and vegetables have finished cooking, layer ½ cup of spinach in a bowl. Place over that approximately half of the quinoa and then half of the vegetables.
5)Garnish with mango and lemon juice.



A mango- just in case anyone doesn't know what they look like.



The chopped "stoplight" vegetables

*Notes* This recipe creates two large portions of salad. I dislike salad dressings in general, but you can probably add salad dressing if you would like, but would add more fat and sugars to the recipe that does not need to be there. This recipe is loosely based on a recipe from the Fatfree Vegan blog, (Copy and paste this link into your browser: http://blog.fatfreevegan.com)which continues to be a great resource for me to find creative new recipes.