Quinoa and Black Bean Salad with Apricot Lime Vinaigrette for a Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day!  We had quite a slow day today after a weekend of TPC and discovering my baby girl was sick this morning with a fever.  The weather was just gorgeous though so in between lying around with her I got outside to shoot a few photos in the yard after making a most memorable salad.

Now for the salad.

A while back I won the cookbook Clean Food by Terry Walters  from fellow blogger, Joanne at Apple Crumbles.  I pull it out all the time and look through it to see what I want to make but there are just so many things sometimes it's hard to choose.  I finally narrowed down my choice to the Quinoa and Black Bean Salad with Apricot Lime Vinaigrette. 

Let me tell you, this salad is as amazing as the title.  I chose some champagne mangos I had found at my last trip to Whole Foods and they were perfectly ripe, tasting like a rich mango flavored honey.  They added the perfect balance of sweetness to the spicy jalapenos, aromatic mint and hearty black beans.  I didn't have any toasted pumpkin seeds handy and I couldn't find jicama so omitted both and subbed some fresh cucumber and extra toasted sunflower seeds.  The salty nuttiness rounded out the whole dish that can only be summed up as perfection. 

Quinoa and Black Bean Salad with Apricot Lime Vinaigrette

Adapted from Terry Walter's recipe in Clean Food

10 Servings

Salad

1 cup red quinoa, rinsed and drained, cooked to package directions and cooled
Coarse sea salt, to taste
1 small mangos or one large, peeled, pitted and diced
2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup diced red onion
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced (about 1 cup)
1 cup halved grape tomatoes
10 Tbsp sunflower seeds (reserved until you are ready to serve)

Dressing

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp fresh lime juice (about 1 lime)
1/4 cup apricot nectar
2 jalapenos, seeded and minced
1/2 cup chopped fresh mint
Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

1. In a large bowl add the quinoa through tomatoes and gently mix.

2. In a small bowl whisk the dressing ingredients  (I chose to blend them in my Magic Bullet as well).

3. Pour the dressing over the salad mix and toss.

4. When ready to serve, top each serving with 1 Tbsp of sunflower seeds.