Quinoa Tabouleh/Quinoa Salad with Mint Cilantro Pesto

After a long wait I could finally find a pack of red quinoa at the regular Trader Joe's I often visit.Last week when I saw Priya's Quinoa Tabouleh ,I was eager to make it.My recipe today is an inspiration from her's.I did not have all the ingredients needed for the original tabouleh ,so using the ingredients I had in hand, I modified it and this sure tasted very very delicious.Two thumbs up from my family.

When I was looking for vegetable stock to cook this I stumbled upon a pack of organic low-sodium tomato soup that I got from TJ that was inside.I was looking at it's expiry date and it was nearing it's expiration in couple of days.So I decided to cook the quinoa with the tomato soup instead of cooking with vegetable broth.

Here is my version of the Quinoa Tabouleh---------------

Main Ingredients :

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Red Quinoa.........................................1cup

Organic Tomato Soup.........................2cups(low-sodium)

Baby Spinach......................................1cup

Carrots................................................2big(finely grated)

Celery..................................................2sticks(finely chopped)

Onion..................................................1small(finely chopped)

Seasoning Ingredients :

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Pepper Powder.................................1tsp

Mint Leaves......................................1/4 cup

Coriander Leaves..............................1/4 cup

Green Chillies....................................2(small)

Lemon Juice......................................1/4 cup

Salt....................................................1tsp 

Preparation :

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First rinse the quinoa under cold water atleast 5 times and discard the water.Now place the rinsed quinoa in a sauce pan and add 2 cups of tomato soup and cook for 15 minutes or till done.

Transfer the cooked quinoa to a bowl and let it rest.Mean while cut the celery and onion into small pieces and a make a fine shred of the carrots.Now add one after the other all the cut vegetables to the warm quinoa.

Blend the cilantro, mint, chillies, lemon juice and salt into a nice paste ,add water if needed.Now add the onions and the mint-cilantro pesto to the quinoa.

Mix all the ingredients well so that the quinoa and the veggies get well coated with the pesto.Delicious Quinoa Tabouleh/Salad with Mint-Cilantro Pesto is ready to be served on a bed of baby spinach.

Note : 

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1) I did not add any additional salt to the dish as the tomato soup had salt in it.It was enough to flavor the quinoa.

2) I added just a teaspoon of salt to the pesto.

3) It was a great way to use up my soup before it expired.

This goes to CWF-WG : Quinoa Event hosted by Priya Mitharwal .

This goes to BB4: What's Lurking in the Kitchen? event hosted by Nupur.

This goes to CWS : Pepper Event hosted by Padma started by Priya .

This goes to Healing Foods : Onion Event hosted by Priya started by Siri .