It’s been a carb-heavy week filled with cheesy pasta, French meringue cakes and cookies. So last night, I decided to switch things up and make a salad.

I was craving grapefruit and I also wanted quinoa, because I haven’t had that in a while. I googled the two and landed on this recipe.

The best part about this salad (besides how delicious it is) is how easily it comes together. The only labor intensive step is roasting and salting the nuts, but you can get that out of the way at the beginning before you make the quinoa and slice the grapefruit.

Once you prepare all the parts, you toss it together on a plate et voila: You have a colorful, vibrant salad that is the perfect antidote to a week-long carb fest.

My friend Carly recently recommended this artist, Black Violin, and I’ve been jamming out to them lately on my walk to and from work. Here’s one of my favorite songs.

Grapefruit Quinoa Salad with Roasted Almonds (slightly tweaked from A House in the Hills)

Ingredients

For almonds:
1 tbsp olive oil
1/3 cup almonds
Salt to taste

For salad:
1 medium ruby red grapefruit peeled, pith removed and cut into 1/2″ pieces
1 cup tri color quinoa
2 cups sunflower greens
1/3 cup roasted, salted almonds, chopped
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon honey (preferably raw)
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
Maldon salt
fresh cracked black pepper

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350. Toss the almonds with olive oil and salt on a baking sheet. Let roast in the oven for about 5 minutes or until fragrant and slightly brown. Keep an eye on them to make sure that they don’t burn. Remove from oven and let cool. Once they’re cool, roughly chop them.

Rinse quinoa in a fine mesh strainer for 2-3 minutes. Place in a medium heavy bottomed pan and heat over medium, stirring frequently, until water is gone and quinoa is toasted.
Add two cups of water to pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to lowest possible, cover and cook for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit, covered, for an additional 5 minutes.
Fluff quinoa with a fork (if water remains, cover and cook an additional 5 minutes, or until water is gone).

Let quinoa cool to room temperature.

To make dressing combine olive oil, apple cider vinegar, sea salt and honey. Mix well.
To assemble salad, scoop quinoa onto a larger serving plate (or individual plates). Pile on sunflower greens, almonds, grapefruit. Top with Maldon salt and heaps of fresh cracked pepper. Drizzle with dressing, to taste. Enjoy!