Quinoa Kısır (tomato and cucumber grain salad)

Kısır is a traditional Turkish bulgur wheat salad that is served as a side dish to a larger meal or as part of a course of small dishes that are shared tapas (or meze if you're Turkish) style meal.  It also happens to be one of my favourite dishes.  It's great as a snack in the summer or, as I tend to eat it, just for lunch with a little bit of yogurt.  It's usually made with finely ground bulgur wheat, but I had a box of quinoa kicking around, and since I've become quite the fan of the so-called supergrain, I thought I'd do some experimenting.  I must say I thought it turned out quite well.

The idea behind kısır is really simple, you just dress some grains with tomato paste, olive oil, and lemon juice and then add in some fresh veggies for crunch.  The trick is that you don't want to cook the grains thoroughly, you want them to still have a little firmness to them so that they're not complete mush.  This is more of a concern with the fine grain bulgur wheat than with the quinoa, but I still did not add all of the water indicated in the cooking directions for the quinoa because I wanted the grains still to be a little firm.

I added boiling water to the quinoa just to save myself a little time, covered it, and let it simmer while the water was absorbed.  Before all of the water was absorbed, I also added in the tomato paste (about 2 tablespoons/half a can) and some paprika for a bit of a pepper flavour.  You can add as much paprika as you like to achieve your desired spiciness.  Or, if you're not a spice person, you can add in some chopped red bell pepper.  I don't really like sweet peppers, I'm more of a spice girl myself.  I was a little generous with the paprika.

While the quinoa is cooking, chop the tomato, cucumber, green onions, and parsley.  I chopped everything pretty fine except for the tomato only because tomatoes lose their structural integrity pretty quickly.  Also, this was all the parsley I had left.  I probably would have doubled the amount if I had had more of the fresh stuff.  Instead, I augmented it with some dried parsley.  Not nearly as good, but it'll do in a pinch.

So then you take your tomatoey quinoa (above) and add in the olive oil and lemon juice.  At this point I only juiced half the lemon into the pot, but ended up adding in the other half after I had mixed in the rest of my ingredients.  Granted, I like things pretty lemony.  If you're unsure if it needs more lemon before you add in the veggies, I would recommend that you add the veggies before you make that decision.  Remember you can always add more.  Then you add in your chopped veggies (below) and gently fold it all together.

Once you've got it all stirred up, add salt and pepper to taste.  And it's really just that simple.

Quinoa Kısır:

Serves: 2-3

Ingredients:

• 1 cup quinoa
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1/4 tsp paprika
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 3 green onions, chopped
• 1/3 of an English cucumber, chopped
• 1 tomato, diced
• 1/4 cup Italian parsley, finely chopped
• Salt and pepper, to taste

1) Simmer quinoa and water in a covered pot.  Before water is fully absorbed, add in tomato paste and paprika and stir well.  Cover again until water is absorbed and grains are cooked but still firm.

2) While quinoa is simmering, prepare all vegetables.

3) Once quinoa has finished cooking, remove from heat and uncover.  Let cool for a few minutes.  Then add in olive oil and lemon juice and combine well.

4) Add in chopped vegetables and fold in gently.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy!