Vonderful Vegan Sweet Potato Quinoa Salad

For some reason I got 4 sweet potatoes the last time I went grocery shopping. I love them, but once I got home I thought, ah, why did I get these? I baked one the other night and still hadn’t eaten it as of today. I ran a quick search of sweet potato salad and yielded quite a few results. Most of them were chock full of mayonnaise. Since going pescetarian, I haven’t been able to eat mayonnaise. It makes me immediately sick. Another search yielded a random vegan recipe that incorporated Quinoa, which I had and also love. So, here is the recipe:

• 1 cup quinoa, uncooked
• 2 cups vegetable broth or water
• 1 sweet potato, baked and diced
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• salt and pepper to taste

Simmer the quinoa in the vegetable broth about 10 to 15 minutes, or until water is gone and quinoa is light and fluffy when stirred. Remove from heat and allow to cool.Toss together the quinoa, sweet potato and bell pepper in a large bowl.

I can't stop guys.

In a separate small bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, olive oil and cayenne pepper. Gently toss this dressing with the quinoa. Season with a generous amount of salt and pepper.

I had about 3/4 C of Quinoa, but I thought it was probably fine. It is cooking now. ETA 10 minutes from now. Okay, it took a bit longer for the quinoa to cook than I thought. And it is a good thing I didn’t have a full cup of quinoa, because 3/4 C seemed too much. It is chilling in the fridge right now.

I also want to note that I had not cooked quinoa in vegetable broth before, and I think that it is a great idea.

Okay, I tried some and I think it is delicious. Mike, not so much. The cayenne pepper adds just the right amount of spice and the sweet potatoes are perfect. The recipe calls for red bell peppers, but I used green, and it works.