Lemon Quinoa Salad

Traditional tabbouleh is bulgur, which is wheat. This one uses quinoa, rinsed well and cooled on a tray so it packs as separate grains, not a clump.

Makes

4 lunches

Hands on

15 min

Start to finish

45 min

Keeps

4 days in the fridge

• 1 cupquinoaBuy a bag labeled gluten free, not from a bulk bin. Quinoa carries no gluten of its own but it is handled alongside wheat and barley on the way to the store.
• 1 3/4 cupswater
• 1/4 cupolive oil
• 3 tablespoonslemon juiceSqueezed from a lemon. Bottled juice tastes dull once the salad is cold.
• 1garlic clove, grated
• 1 cupflat leaf parsley, chopped fineThis is a salad of herbs with grain in it, not the other way around.
• 1/4 cupmint leaves, chopped
• 1 cupcherry tomatoes, quartered and seeded
• 1/2cucumber, seeded and diced
• 3scallions, sliced thin
• 1/2 cupcrumbled fetaOptional.
• salt

1. Rinse the quinoa in a fine mesh strainer under cold water for about 30 seconds, rubbing it with your fingers, until the water runs clear instead of cloudy. The coating is saponin and it is what makes unrinsed quinoa taste soapy. Rinse the bags that say pre-rinsed too.
2. Combine the quinoa, water and a good pinch of salt in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, cover, drop to low and cook 15 minutes. Take it off the heat and leave it covered 5 more.
3. Spread the hot quinoa in a thin layer on a sheet pan and leave it 15 minutes. Cooling it in the pot steams it into a dense wet clump that no amount of forking fixes later.
4. Whisk the olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and half a teaspoon of salt.
5. Scrape the cooled quinoa into a bowl, break it up with a fork, pour the dressing over and toss.
6. Fold in the parsley, mint, tomatoes, cucumber, scallions and feta. Taste it cold and add lemon and salt until it tastes sharp.

1. Use a wide shallow container. In a deep tub the bottom third packs down into paste.
2. Nothing needs its own container. The grain takes the dressing up instead of collapsing under it, which is why this holds for five hours when a lettuce salad does not.
3. Send a spoon. Quinoa falls straight through fork tines and a kid gives up on it.
4. If there is feta in it, send an ice pack. Without the feta it rides fine at room temperature.

• It tastes soapy or bitter. The quinoa was not rinsed, or was rinsed for a few seconds instead of until the water ran clear.
• It is a dense clump instead of separate grains. It cooled in the covered pot rather than spread out on a tray.
• It tastes flat at noon. It was seasoned while it was still warm, and cold mutes lemon and salt.

Tabbouleh is normally made with bulgur, which is cracked wheat, so the tub from the deli case and nearly every recipe under that name is a wheat dish. That is the whole reason this version exists. Quinoa is a seed and carries no gluten, but it is grown, hauled and packed alongside wheat and barley, so buy a bag labeled gluten free and skip the bulk bins, where the same scoops move from bin to bin. Nothing else in this salad needs checking.