Tzatziki Salad with Quinoa

I love tzatziki sauce on just about everything. It’s wonderful as a dipping sauce for kabobs, matches perfectly with falafel, and goes great with gyros. It’s also goes great with fish…much better than tarter sauce I think. In addition, it also enhances the flavor of mixed baby greens when you use it as a dressing for a salad. Not only does tzatziki sauce enhance and add flavor to a salad, it’s also a much healthier alternative to most store-brought creamy salad dressings. Read more about the health benefits of yogurt here. The red quinoa adds a nutty taste and texture that I really enjoy. You can read more about quinoa here.

There are many ways to make tzatziki sauce and endless combinations of salads you can enjoy it on. Here’s the tzatziki salad Kemal and I had with our pizza this evening.

Tzatziki Salad with Quinoa

Ingredients for the Salad:

• mixed baby greens
• cherry tomatoes
• green olives
• red quinoa
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• salt to taste

Recipe Source for Tzatziki Sauce:  recipetips.com)

Instructions for making the salad:

• Cook the quinoa in some water and the olive oil on high. You basically cook it the way you cook rice. Just cook it on high heat until the quinoa softens. You will see little sprouts as the quinoa cooks. This is normal.
• After the quinoa is cooked, drain it and run cold water over it to cool it. Then add a little salt to taste.
• Assemble your salad to your liking and then garnish with quinoa by sprinkling it over the greens and vegetables.
• Place the tzatziki sauce in the center of the salad the way I did and then garnish with mint. If you prefer, you can toss the greens, tomatoes, olives, quinoa, and tzatziki sauce together. I just think the presentation is prettier if the ingredients aren’t tossed.