Marie Monde, Mange et Mode

To meet my protein goals while coping with the unprecedented heat, quinoa has been in heavy rotation for me lately. I can’t stand when left overs go to waste, so I try to make inventive ways to re-brand my left overs into creative new meals. From that, my newest quinoa salad recipe was born!

It’s a nice, quick, high protein salad with leftover quinoa, black beans (left over from taco Tuesday), and some chopped peppers, onions and marinated mushrooms atop baby spinach 🌱

For a video tutorial, see my Instagram (@Marie_Mange_Monde).

The direct link to this post is here.

We are team #nowaste over here, so I pretty much just used things already in the fridge that had been there a few days. You can make tons of substitutions/modifications to this salad (preferably using the ingredients already in your fridge). I drizzled some olive oil on top for added richness, but some avocado slices would have been tasty as well. Olives would give a nice flavoring to this salad and nuts, like walnuts or almonds, or seeds, like pumpkin or sunflower, would give a great, gluten-free crunch (as well as all the added nutrients!)

This weeks’ flavor combo was delicious, and the iron and protein (from the quinoa and beans!) kept me fueled up and ready to take on the rest of the day! I will post about other no waste/fridge dump salad variations and would love to here about yours as well!

Anyone else make makeshift meals with their leftovers?! If so, what’s your go-to?! Educate me 🙂

*As a note on the Marinated Mushrooms, I did a quick, 30 minute marinade while I was building the rest of the salad and let them soak up some yummy flavor from Coconut Aminos, a little Umami seasoning, and…here me out…a few sprinkles of Goya seasoning. I’m a product of cultural immersion and tend to do a bit of flavor fusion on a regular basis. I love a good global symphony of flavors.

I again want to reiterate how great it is to play with the options available to you and make your own variation using your week’s left overs, but I’m no gatekeeper, so I’ve also added my recipe below.

RECIPE

Ingredients:

• cup of quinoa, cooked
• 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
• 1/2 cup bell pepper, diced ( I used half orange and half green)
• 1/3 cup red onion, sliced
• 1/3 cup black beans (I used left overs from a can)
• 1/2 cup mushrooms, marinated
• Lettuce to taste, about 1-2 handfuls

Simply add all ingredients to a bowl, toss, and drizzle with olive oil or your favorite salad dressing.

Enjoy!