Quinoa and Vegetable Salad with Tahini Dressing

Sometimes it's just too hot to eat a meal from the oven!  The temperature has reach nearly 100 degrees every day for the last two weeks in DC, which has caused me to seek out cool, fresh dinners!

I found this recipe in the August issue of Real Simple and decided to try it.  I've never used beets in a dish before, so I was excited to try something different.  Plus, I had almost every other ingredient already on hand.

Ingredients:
1 cup quinoa
1 cup frozen shelled edamame
1 bunch watercress (trimmed)
1 pound raw beets (2 medium) peeled and coarsely grated (I chopped mine into small pieces)
8 radishes thinly sliced

Dressing:
1/3 cup tahini
2 TBS fresh squeezed lemon juice
2 tsp grated fresh ginger (I had organic powdered on hand and used that/probably should have only used 1tsp)
1tsp honey
1/2 tsp Sea salt
1/4 tsp black pepper

Directions:
1) Cook the quinoa and edamame according to the package directions and set aside to cool

2) In a small bowl, whisk together the tahini, lemon juice, ginger, honey, 1/2 cup water, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper

3) Divide the watercress, beets, radishes, edamame and quinoa among plates and drizzle with dressing

*Serves 4 people, but Kern and I had 2 large helpings and used it as dinner and not a side.  It was very filling!

I hope you can enjoy this fresh summer salad!