Ok, ok. You’re probably sick of my quinoa salads by now. Kumquat; Cherry Chickpea; Greek… I can’t help it, I love the stuff. And if you haven’t tried it yet, this is just one more reason why you should!

The idea for this started with the fresh basil I’ve been growing. My plant had a lot of big leaves, and I wanted to use them for something! Tomatoes obviously go really well with basil. So do pine nuts. Except, Enid, Oklahoma has not yet discovered the pine nut… soooo, toasted almonds were a good substitute. I wanted to make something that was more like a side dish than a salad, so that’s where the quinoa came in. You can’t really go wrong with all these awesome fresh flavors.

Tomato Basil Quinoa

• 1 cup vegetable stock
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 cup quinoa
• 1 pint grape tomatoes, quartered
• 1/3 cup toasted almonds, roughly chopped
• juice of half a lemon
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• salt & pepper, to taste
• 10-12 leaves basil, torn
• 1 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese

In a pot, combine veggie stock and water. Bring to a boil, add quinoa and stir. Reduce to a simmer, cover and cook 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Let cool. In a large mixing bowl, combine cooled quinoa, tomatoes and almonds.

Toss together, then add the rest of the ingredients and toss.

That’s it. Super easy… Serve it up with an extra sprinkle of parm!

Soooo delicious. Fresh basil + tomatoes + fresh parm + lemon = win. Nick made steak to go with this, but to be honest, I only had 2 bites of his meaty masterpiece because I was so obsessed with this salad and just wanted to eat the whole bowl. Luckily, I didn’t, and leftovers for lunch were just as awesome!