Name: Colorful Quinoa Brown Rice Salad
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1 3/4c water; 1 pkg quinoa (I used Near East Quinoa and Brown Rice, omitting the spice packet); 2 cups fresh baby spinach, thinly sliced; 1 cup grape tomatoes, halved; 1 medium cucumber, seeded and chopped; 1 medium sweet orange pepper, chopped; 1 medium sweet yellow pepper, chopped; 2 green onions, chopped; 3 tablespoons lime juice; 2 tablespoons olive oil; 4 teaspoons honey; 1 tablespoon grated lime zest; 2 teaspoons minced fresh gingerroot; 1/4 teaspoon salt

Colorful Quinoa Brown Rice Salad

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#CookoutWeek 2018 is here! During the next week, I am joining over 50 of my blogger friends to celebrate summer by posting delicious cookout-themed recipes. If you love grilling, frozen treats, picnics, berries, s'mores, campfire meals, and other summer goodies, you are in the right place!

*This is a sponsored post. I received products to use in the creation of my #CookoutWeek recipes. All opinions are my own.*

To kick things off, I've sharing Colorful Quinoa Brown Rice Salad, a recipe that I've adapted slightly from Taste of Home. Back in October, I changed my eating habits, and part of that change was trying new things. Quinoa was on the list to try, and I've found a brown rice/quinoa blend that I love.

When I saw the recipe for this salad, I used that as the jumping off point, and then followed the rest of the recipe as it was written. While the quinoa and brown rice cooked, I chopped all the veggies. So many beautiful colors and textures. I keep my gingerroot in the freezer, and used a microplane to grate it. That really helped it get distributed evenly throughout the dish.

This comes together so quickly, and it gets better as it sits. I just gave the lidded bowl a shake when I passed by the fridge. It was the perfect side to some burgers, and it was awesome with some leftover diced grilled chicken rolled into a multi grain tortilla. Next time I might even add some diced jalapeno. Thank you to Catherine T. for sharing her recipe!

Colorful Quinoa Brown Rice Salad

Ingredients

1 3/4c water
1 pkg quinoa (I used Near East Quinoa and Brown Rice, omitting the spice packet)
2 cups fresh baby spinach, thinly sliced
1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
1 medium cucumber, seeded and chopped
1 medium sweet orange pepper, chopped
1 medium sweet yellow pepper, chopped
2 green onions, chopped

DRESSING:

3 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 teaspoons honey
1 tablespoon grated lime zest
2 teaspoons minced fresh gingerroot
1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions

In a large saucepan, bring water to a boil. Add quinoa and brown rice. Reduce heat; simmer, covered, 12-15 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat; fluff with a fork. Transfer to a large bowl; cool completely.
Stir spinach, tomatoes, cucumber, peppers and green onions into quinoa. In a small bowl, whisk dressing ingredients until blended. Drizzle over quinoa mixture; toss to coat. Refrigerate until serving.