Southwest Quinoa Salad With Steamed Beans
What sounds most like summer and southern than a Southwest Salad? This recipe is a twist on southwest classic salad, and satisfies all your needs. First, it is filling ! Second, it is healthy, clean and nutrient dense. Third, it is the perfect to-go salad to take on picnics, day trips and to the pool…
What sounds most like summer and southern than a Southwest Salad? This recipe is a twist on southwest classic salad, and satisfies all your needs. First, it is filling ! Second, it is healthy, clean and nutrient dense. Third, it is the perfect to-go salad to take on picnics, day trips and to the pool ! Fourth, it teaches you how to use the steam cooker three ways: to cook grain like quinoa, to cook beans, and to cook corn. Last but not least, it is DELICIOUS!
Affiliate Disclaimer
This blog contains affiliate links, including Amazon links.
Using this links comes at not cost to you, but financially supports my work in the the making of this website.
As a promise to you, I only promote products I own or would purchase myself, and trust.
Thank you in advance for your support!
Can I steam quinoa ?
Yes, you can steam quinoa, two ways. First, you can cook it in the steam cooker, second, you can reheat it in the steam cooker too!
Cook Quinoa In The Steam Cooker
Forget the pot, that boils the quinoa, thereby killing many precious vitamins ! Prefer a heating temperature below boiling point, but that still is warm enough to enable quinoa to absorb the water and cook! The Vitaliseur steam cooker heats up at 95°C i.e. 202°F. Despite the fact that the temperature is lower than boiling water, the steam heats up high enough to cook the quinoa, and does it as fast.
Your quinoa cooks in 1.5 volumes of water ( 1 cup quinoa to 1.5 cups of water) between 15-20 minutes, depending on whether the water it starts in is hot or cold. I usually heat up my water to 160-190F and pour it into the quinoa, and it’s cooked within 15 minutes tops! I own a Cuisinart electric kettle that has several temperature options, and it’s great !
Reheat quinoa in the steam cooker
The Vitaliseur is not only a fantastic clean eating cooker, it also reheats very fast ! If you need only a few minutes to use a microwave, it is not without its risks! With 5 minutes heating time ( less if you use your electric kettle ! ) and 5-10 minutes heating time, your quinoa. can be warm enough to eat within 10 minutes, and your food still be very nutrient dense.
Do I use canned beans or dried beans for this recipe?
Properly prepared presoaked beans are healthier and easier to digest
This is up to you! Just know this : Beans prepared by the industry are prepared efficiently. But efficiency sometimes comes at the cost of digestibility and nutrient density. Boiling beans without soaking them in water overnight does not leave the plant time to wake up and come to life. When the plants wakes up in water, phytic acid disappear, and your beans become easier to digest. Besides, the sprouting process also multiplies nutrients:
(T)he nutritional value and content of phytochemicals often vary with plant growth and development within the same crop. Sprouted seeds and microgreens are often more nutrient-dense than ungerminated seeds or mature vegetables.
Ebert AW. Sprouts and Microgreens-Novel Food Sources for Healthy Diets. Plants (Basel). 2022 Feb 21;11(4):571. doi: 10.3390/plants11040571. PMID: 35214902; PMCID: PMC8877763.
Therefore, feel free not only to let your beans soak overnight, but to rinse them in the morning and let them sprout 24 extra hours, and you will ease digestibility and nutrient density.
Dried Beans Are Cheaper in Bulk and have a longer shelf life
Second advantage of dried beans, they are actually cheaper ! One cup garbanzo beans will soak up water and become over 2.5 cups of cooked beans ! If the $1 can of garbanzo or black beans seams cheap, the $2 per pounds of dried organic beans should not scare you ! And the shelf life of dried beans is much longer than cans.
Where can I buy bulk beans?
Your health store probably has different sizes beans bags. But my favorite source is actually Azure Standard sells black beans for under $2 a pound , down to $1.41 in biggest bulk volume. Find a drop near you and get great organic products in bulk while supporting small farmers! Use my link for a discount on your first purchase.
Can I Steam My Beans?
Best Bean Prep: Gentle steam your beans
You know that by soaking your beans, you are making sure your digestive system will digest them better. The next step of the ideal preparation of beans is to gentle steam them. Why? Firstly, because they steam faster than they will cook in a pressure cooker. While a pressure cooker takes 30 minutes to cook black beans, you need only 20 in the Vitaliseur.
What is quicker, steaming beans or pressure cooking them?
And let’s be honest, it takes way too long to get the pressure cooker to 250°F before you can actually throw your beans presoaked in there. So it takes you an hour to get your beans cooked. The Vitaliseur needs 5 to 10 minutes to heat up on high heat. Total cooking time: 30 minutes. Meanwhile you can use it to cook other things in the steam basket right before or after. Throw your corn in and it’s done 5 minutes later!
Is Steaming My Beans Healthier than Pressure Cooking Them?
Better, not only you save time, you keep your precious nutrients below boiling point ( pressure cooking cooks well above it at 250°F ) and keep a higher amount of nutrient in your plate! Besides, steamed foods are easier on the digestive system than boiled foods. Try it out! You won’t need much to be convinced!
What else can I steam to make this salad?
The only other ingredients that needs cooking is corn.
Wether you buy corn whole and peel the cob, or buy frozen cob, you can cook in the steam basket. Friendly warning however: DO NOT cook the corn in the bag, as manufacturer suggests on the bag. Firstly, your corn will only excrete toxins into the bottom of the steam cooker if it is out of the bag. Second, you don’t want to eat degraded plastic in your food, so get it out of the bag.
Let’s make this salad!
Do you have all the ingredients? Now let’s do it!
Just note that if you make the dressing with jalapeno, it will get spicier if you include the seeds. Depending on how sensitive your tastebuds are, make sure to go slowly with adding dressing onto your salad. In our family, I set the jalapeno aside in a jar with olive oil. Sometimes, kids will just take the olive oil from the jar and have a *tiny* fraction of spiciness in their salad. However you choose to proceed, I guarantee you’ll love this salad!
I need more protein in my salad, how can I do that?
For sure you can ! This salad will do great will steamed and grilled shrimps, or steamed / grilled chicken !
Bon appétit !
Southwest Quinoa Salad with Steamed Beans
Enjoy this wonderful classic southwest salad while learning how to use a steam cooker to prepare beans, quinoa and steamed corn! This salad is fresh, filling, incredibly flavorful, and adapts to your taste wether you want it spicy or prefer having the spicy dressing on the side (i.e. my kids do). You can easily take it to the pool and have dinner there!
Ingredients
Produce
- 3 cups dried quinoa or 5 cups steamed quinoa (see instructions)
- 1 cup dry kidney / Black beans - soaked ahead of time overnight to 24 hours, then Rinsed , then cooked in Water for 20 min in your steam cooker ( see instructions and notes)
- 1 red bell pepper and 1 orange bell pepper - diced
- 2 roma tomatoes, diced
- 1/2 red onion, diced
- 1 and 1/2 avocados, sliced
- 1/2 bag of frozen corn (5oz) - cooked 5 min directly in the steam basket of your steam Cooker - not cooked in the bag!
Dressing
- Sea salt and pepper 3 tsp salt
- 9 tbsp extra virgin olive oil or 6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil and 3 tbsp organic expeller pressed canola oil ( for the Omega 3)
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- Juice of 4 limes
- 1⁄3 bunch cilantro - minced x 2 ( or 2 tbsp dried cilantro)
- 3 tsp sea salt ( quality salt is cheaper in bulk!)
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1 fresh jalapeno , diced into the dressing ( remove the seeds for the kids, leave the seeds in for adults and spicy dressing lovers!)
Instructions
- Use a steam cooker that keeps temperature below 212 °F i.e. 203F or 95°C: The Vitaliseur de Marion (use "steamedcuisine" small caps to 10% on purchase from the US/ Canada. email me for a European discount : bernadette@steamedcuisinelifestyle.com
- The day before: soak 1 cup of kidney or black beans in water.
- Fill up the tank of the steam cooker with 3-5 cm / 2 inches water on high heat. Rinse the quinoa in a stainless steel bowl and fill it with one and a half volume of water to quinoa ( i.e. 3 cups of quinoa for 4.5 cups of water). Place the bowl of water and quinoa on the steam basket cover with the lid. It cooks for 15 minutes approximately.
- While quinoa is cooking, dice tomatoes, peppers, onion, Jalapeño, mince cilantro, and slice avocadoes. TIP: You can keep the Jalapeño seeds for a stronger dressing, or set aside for a gentler dressing. If some family members don't want it too spicy, mince Jalapeño and seeds in a bowl with oil and serve on the side for those who want it.
- Once quinoa is cooked ( the seeds have open and the water is gone), take out the bowl with a grabber ( you'll use it all the time: get a good one!) and set aside. Rinse the beans and place them all on the steam basket. Place lid on and steam 20 minutes.
- Take out the beans and place them into a bowl and let them cool down. Instead, place the corn on the steam basket, cover, and steam 5 minutes. Note: corn thaws fast, if you take it out the freezer as you start cooking the quinoa, it should be fine to only cook 5 minutes in the steam basket.
- In the serving bowl, place the quinoa, tomatoes, pepper, onion, beans, corn, avocado, and cilantro.
- Make the dressing: In a bowl, pour olive oil, canola oil, crushed garlic, salt pepper and lime juice. If you have a shaker, shake vigorously, mix the salad before you are done pouring: it could be that the amounts of dressing are too much for you! My husband likes more, I like less, so he adjusts in his plate.
- In a separate bowl, pour olive oil and the diced jalapeño with or without seeds. If you want it really spicy, use an immersion blender with 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil and blend the jalapeño with the seeds! You can keep it in a closed container in the fridge up to a week, if you don't finish it before!
Serve, Bon Appétit !!
Notes
- TIP: You can keep the Jalapeño seeds for a stronger dressing, or set aside for a gentler dressing. If some family members don't want it too spicy, mince Jalapeño and seeds in a bowl with oil and serve on the side for those who want it.
- Use a steam cooker that keeps temperature below boiling point, i.e. 203°F or 95°C: The Vitaliseur de Marion (use "steamedcuisine" small caps to 10% on purchase from the US/ Canada. email me for a European discount : bernadette@steamedcuisinelifestyle.com ). it will preserve vitamins and trace minerals and cleanse your food. For more info, see The Tools and Ingredients I use.
- Do not cook corn in the bag! Although bagged corn manufacturer says it is safe, cooking corn in the bag degrades the plastic in the bag onto your food. In the steam cooker I use, you can safely open the bag and cook your corn directly onto the steam basket. Bonus: the steam cooker cleanses corn from pesticides and toxines!
- Don't have frozen corn? Use fresh corn ! place peeled corn directly onto the steam basket and steam 5 minutes. Then with a knife, you can peel off the corn into a bowl and use it all into the salad!
Need more Salad Recipes?
I love entree salads. They are fresh, healthy, they fill kids up, they are easy on the go for picnic or on travel days. I always can play with a myriad of taste combinations, food cultures, type of meat, fish and produce. Never boring! Kids love the colors! More, pack it in a stainless steel bowl with lid, grab a fews plastic or wheat straw plates and silverware, and it’s an adventure! Every time I grab a bowl of entree salad at the pool, I get great compliments on what my kids eat, and how delicious it looks. That’s what I mean: give them good food, and they’ll ask for more!
I have plenty of healthy and deliciously colorful salad ideas you can prep with a steam cooker – or not, of course, but they are even better and faster to make with a steam cooker.
Here are a few more Summer entree salads options for you!
- Try a salad Asian style: the Summer Salad : Shrimp, Crunch and Noodles, one family fave!
- Want to travel to Europe? Get a taste of the Mediterranean sea with Mediterranean Rice and Tuna Salad
- Another Southwest option? Summer salad with Southwest Tomatillo Dressing
- Kale & Quinoa Lemony Goodness salad is also a great option for summer potlucks !
Summer is not over, and I have more to share ! Stay tuned by signing up to my newsetter!
Tastefully yours & Bon appétit!
great post, very informative. I ponder why the other experts of thjis sector do not notice this.
You must proceed your writing. I am confident,
you’ve a huge readers’ base already! https://Bandur-Art.blogspot.com/2024/08/the-ultimate-guide-to-no-mans-sky-mods.html
Appreciate the encouragements thank you – Bernadette
great post, very informative. I ponder why the other experts oof this
sector do not notice this. You muhst proceed youjr writing.
I am confident, you’ve a huge readers’ base already! https://Bandur-Art.blogspot.com/2024/08/the-ultimate-guide-to-no-mans-sky-mods.html