Quinoa Pinto Bean Salad

Once every three or four months, I launch an eat-down in my kitchen. This is when I stop buying more and more food and instead focus on consuming and enjoying all the wonderful food that is jammed into my fridge, freezer and pantry. Eat-down weeks are my favorite because this is when I'm using my creativity rather than strict recipes to come up with meals. You never know what you will find. Yesterday, I found a jar of date-tamarind chutney in the freezer. Yay for impromptu sev puri.

In the fridge was a partial jar of habanero lime salsa, two avocados that were getting dangerously mushy, a few sprigs of cilantro and one plump red pepper. Add to that some quinoa and pinto beans from the pantry and this is what I came up with- a quinoa pinto bean salad that was an instant hit with my post-quilting lunch buddies. This salad uses a lot of trendy ingredients like avocado and quinoa that are touted for their health benefits, but the reason you'll want a second helping is because it just tastes so good. This recipe happens to be vegan and gluten-free. It would be excellent for lunch boxes and picnic hampers.

Quinoa Pinto-Bean Salad

1. Rinse 1 measure (3/4 cup quinoa) well, then cook it in a rice cooker or on the stove-top. Let cool.

2. Soak 1 cup pinto beans overnight and pressure cook them until tender. Drain and cool. Canned beans would work well here too.

3. Add the following to a large bowl:
Cooked quinoa from step 1
Cooked pinto beans from step 2
2 ripe avocados, diced
1 large red pepper, diced
2 tbsp. minced raw onion
handful of cilantro, chopped
1/4 cup salsa

4. Make a dressing by whisking together 3 tbsp. olive oil, juice of 1 lemon, salt, pepper, cumin and coriander powder and a pinch of red pepper flakes. Add the dressing to the bowl and toss all the ingredients together gently. Taste and adjust the balance of salt and lemon juice.

5. Chill for an hour or two, then serve cold or at room temperature.

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For many years, I've been using Google Reader to get updates on the hundreds of blogs that I regularly read. Well, Google Reader is set to retire soon, so I recently switched over to another reader named Feedly, which is working out quite nicely. I'm taking this opportunity to spring-clean the list of blogs that I follow, to go through and cull the ones that I find are no longer relevant to me, and unsubscribe from those that are dormant. At the same time, I'd love to discover some new blogs to enjoy, and I'm asking for your recommendations:

In the comments, will you please link to one or two or three blogs that you absolutely love? They don't have to be food blogs.

And, if you're a food blogger, will you please leave links to one or two recipes on your blog that are your must-try recipes? I'll choose a few and try them and blog about them.

If you write a blog on another topic, please leave a link to any post that you'd like to share.

Normally, leaving links to one's blog in the comments is not considered good etiquette, but this time, I'm inviting you to do so, so that we can find some inspiration from each other. Thank you for playing along, and I wish you a bright and happy week.