Quinoa Salad with Maple Balsamic Vinaigrette

I need to spend more time than I have right now to explain what happened with the Easter ham, so, I will post about a quinoa salad that I experimented with the other day. Due to being fairly poor, I spend a lot of time deciding on how to reinvent my left overs. This process often gets too creative and doesn't work well at all. This quinoa salad however, turned out pretty well, so I'll share. A few days prior to making this salad I made something I called a warm asparagus salad. I quickly cooked one minced clove of garlic in one tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. To that I added 8-10 diced spears of asparagus, half a diced red onion and half a yellow pepper diced. I served that mixture over spring greens. As I was only cooking for two I ended up with 1 1/2 cups of veggies left over. 

I visited a good friend of mine last summer and she served a quinioa salad that involved a maple balsamic vinaigrette. It was light, refreshing and filling. Food memories stick with me a long time and here is my take on what she made that day although I can not remember what she put in it. I'll blame that on the vodka she was serving with the quinioa. 

Here's what happened: 

For the Quinioa:

1 Cup of Quinioa

2 Cups of Water

1/2 Tbsp of Butter

1/2 Tsp salt 

For the Vinaigrette: 

1/4 Tsp Ground Pepper 

1/2 Tsp Kosher Salt 

3 Tbsp Maple Syrup - Grade B 

2 Tbsp Balsamic vinegar 

1 Tbsp Olive oil 

1/2 Cup of Diced carrots - I had maroon carrots on hand which added a great color.

1/2 Cup of Fresh mozerella - diced - I added this to make a little less healthy for the picky eaters to enjoy.

The vegetable mixture described above.

Salt and pepper to taste. 

1. Bring water and quinoa, water, salt and butter to a boil in a medium saucepan. Stir and then lower the heat to low. Cover the pan until all the water is absorbed. 

2. Add 5 tbsp of the vinaigrette to the quinoa and put it in the refrigerator. 

3. As soon as the quinoa had cooled I added the cheese, the mixture of left over veggies, and the uncooked diced carrots and one more tbsp. of the vinaigrette.

The quinoa salad held up really nicely alongside a London broil I made that night.