This year while having Thanksgiving at a friends house, someone brought a quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah) with pomegranate dish as a side dish.  While bringing quinoa for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner is unusual, I have to say…it was one of my favorite side dishes.  One of the things I loved most about the dish was the pomegranates as every time I took a bite, they would pop in my mouth.  I went on and on and on about how much I loved this dish but no recipe was given to me, so I took a photo of the dish and re-created it on my own.

Quinoa is a good option for anyone who is gluten-free and is also known as a source of protein, iron, and fiber.  Quinoa cooks up easily and is a great way to add flavor as a serving for whole grains.  I personally like the tricolored quinoa better because of the texture it provides and I also likes how it looks.

In creating this recipe, I originally tried using sesame oil as adding this oil can enhance the flavor of the quinoa, I would not recommend doing this for this recipe as I had to play around with the seasoning to get the perfect balance for this salad so please stick to the ingredient list for the dressing.  I would also recommend leaving the cilantro leaves in as they make such a huge difference in the flavor of the salad, however, if there is something you really do not like then omit it.

I rinsed off my quinoa, this is a must for all quinoa

I then placed it in a sauce pan and cooked it based on the instructions on the package

While my quinoa was cooking I chopped my red onion, the key is to keep all your chopped fixings the same size

I then deseeded my tomato

and chopped the tomato up into the same sized pieces as my onions

I put it in a bowl and added my chopped chives and pomegranates

Put my cooked quinoa on top

added my cilantro and dressing, tossed it and here it is

a closer view of the salad

This is a great salad, you can even make it in advance by adding all the ingredients including the dressing but I personally would omit the nuts, then on the day you are serving it, add your nuts so they hold the crunch, toss and serve.  I also prefer to serve this at room temperature as right out of the refrigerator I find that it is too cold and you can not taste all of the flavors.

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Thank you again ~ Patty Limatola-Tanenbaum

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