Mexican Quinoa Salad

Mexican Quinoa Salad in a Luau-themed bowl from DollarTree.  The bowl was cheap an comes in handy!

This recipe came together last weekend almost accidentally.  I had an avacodo that I needed to use so I started building upon that.  I was originally planning on just doing a bean salad with it, but then I remembered that I had quinoa in the closet and thought why not make it a quinoa salad for some extra protein.  One cup of cooked quinoa contains 8 grams of protein, so it's good to have on hand.  A fun fact - we use quinoa as if it were a grain, but it isn't actually a grain at all.  "We cook and eat quinoa like many other grains, but, botanically speaking, it's a relative of spinach, beets and chard. The part we eat is actually the seed, cooked like rice, which is why quinoa is gluten-free. You can even eat the leaves!" (Huffington Post).  The end result was awesome, and I even had enough left for lunch at work for the next three days.  

Avacodos spoil quickly, so I was worried that the salad wouldn't make it through till that last day, but they were only just starting to change color, so they were still ok.  Since they usually brown so quickly, avacodos are often mixed with citrus juices to prolong their life (the citric acid in the juice acts as a preservative).  Of course with Interstial Cystitis, the citric acid can wreak havoc on the bladder, so this practice doesn't work and I'm not sure of a good way to duplicate it to be IC friendly.  When only using part of an avocado, you can retain the pit with the remainder and that helps to preserve the leftover parts, but I stored the rest of the salad in small containers that were easy to grab for work and one pit clearly wouldn't work for 3 different tupperwares.  Perhaps next time I'll put the pit in one of them and save that one for last....

Since I discussed how citric acid is bad for Interstial Cystitis, you may be wondering why I included the lemon extract.  Citric extracts (ie lemon, lime, and orange) are made from the rind of the fruit so it avoids all the acid in the juice.  Like most extracts, the rind is steeped in alcohol for a certain amount of time and then the rind is removed.  Typically in cooking, the alcohol in the extract evaporates and only the infused flavor is left behind.  No citric acid = no problems.  Of course, IC loves to be a bully, so like with most food, that doesn't necessarily mean it is safe for all.

After making this recipe, I do wish I had a lime flavor instead of lemon.  I think it would have given a more authentic Mexican taste.  Since I don't have lime extract though, I obviously couldn't use it.  I'm not sure if I've ever actually seen lime extract at the store and an online search turns up things more on the gourmet end.  I have found a few recipes for a home made extract, so besides keeping an eye out for it in stores, I'm going to try making my own.  I'll report back on my results and with any changes to the recipe.  Until then, if you have lime extract and decide to make this recipe on your own, please let me know what you think! 

Oh, one last note!  I use yellow cherry tomatoes in this recipe (if you remember, tomatoes are one of my favorite foods and I just can't give them up).  Yellow tomatoes are much less acidic then red tomatoes and are therefore better tolerated by the IC bladder.  I seem to do better with them, but if you're worried that they may be a trigger for you, then please feel free to leave them out.

Ingredients:
*Green = Bladder Friendly foods; *Orange = Foods to try wih Caution; *Red = Foods to Avoid
*1 cup Dry Quinoa
*2 cups Water
*1 can Black Beans, drained and rinsed well
*1 Avocado, peeled, pitted, and diced
*1 cup Yellow Cherry Tomatoes, quartered and sliced
*1 cup Spinach, chopped
*2 Radishes, quartered and sliced
*1/2 of a Green Bell Pepper, diced
*2 Scallions, sliced
*2 tsp IC Friendly Taco Seasoning
*1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
*1 1/2 tsp Lemon (or Lime) Extract
*2 tsp Dried Cilantro
*1 Tbsp Olive Oil

Method:

Cook your quinoa according to the package instructions.  (I used Village Harvest; the directions were to bring 1 cup of rinsed Quinoa and 2 cups of water to a boil, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes, or until all water is absorbed.)  While the quinoa cooks, prepare the other ingredients and add all to a large bowl.  Place the bowl and the cooked quinoa in the fridge to chill.  Once chilled to your liking, add the quinoa to the other ingredients in the bowl, still well, and serve.  Yields 4 servings.

*Nutrition Facts are obtained using the MyFitnessPal app and are based on a 2,000 calorie a day diet.  Due to manually entering ingredients, please allow some room for human error.*