quinoa & black bean salad with mango-citrus guacamole

I adapted (barely) this recipe from one on NoTakeOut. NoTakeOut.com posts one dinner menu every day that only takes about 30 minutes (and not a Rachael Ray 30 minutes; a normal human 30 minutes without all the yum-o!! and sammies). Everything I've made from their site is tasty, quick, and usually pretty inexpensive. They also organize their recipes really well, with a shopping list and a list of staples/pantry items at the top, and a list of detailed instructions for multi-tasking below. They post a link to their daily recipes on facebook, so I highly recommend you friend/fan/like or do whatever is the pretend verb of the week to their page.

My version is a little different just because I didn't have a few of the ingredients, and I had a few things I needed to use up (such as extra mangoes from the raw food debacle). I also omit the dressing.

Ingredients:

your favorite leaves for the salad base

1 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, diced and separated in half

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 cans black beans, rinsed & drained

2 cups cooked quinoa

1 orange, zested, then peeled and chopped

3 avocados, peeled & seeded

1 small tomato or 1/2 1 large tomato, diced

1 mango, diced

juice from 1 lime

handful of fresh cilantro, roughly chopped

1/4 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp ground cumin

salt & black pepper

Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Sauté half the diced onion with 2 cloves minced garlic until soft. Add oregano, cinamon, tsp chili powder, a generous pinch of hot paprika, and the orange zest. Add the quinoa and 2 cups water. Bring to a boil, cover, and lower the heat to a simmer. Simmer for about 10 minutes or until the water has evaporated. Turn off the heat, leave the cover on the pot, and just let it sit while you make the guacamole.

Mash the avocados together with the diced orange, mango, tomato, and remaining onion. Stir in the chopped cilantro, lime juice, cumin, and salt & pepper to taste.

After you finish the guacamole, stir the black beans into the quinoa. Pile your chosen leaves into a bowl and top them with the beans & quinoa mixture. Dollop some guacamole on top, and dig in!