Maple Salmon with Harvest Quinoa

Simply Balanced

1 cup quinoa or rainbow quinoa

1 (16-oz.) pkg. frozen salmon fillets, thawed as directed

½ tsp. chili powder

Salt and pepper

1 Granny Smith apple, chopped

½ cup dried cranberries

½ cup chopped pecans

3 or 4 green onions, chopped

¼ cup organic pure maple syrup

¼ cup whole-grain mustard

Cook quinoa according to package directions.

I found boil-in-the-bag quinoa! Neato stuff!

Meanwhile, season salmon with chili powder, salt and pepper. 

I could only find fresh salmon at Ken's SuperFair, but that was a substitution I was more than ok with.

Prepare according to package directions.

Stir apple, cranberries, pecans and onions into cooked quinoa. For sauce, combine syrup and mustard in a small bowl. 

It's certainly an interesting smell!

Toss about half of the sauce with the quinoa mixture.

Serve salmon on bed of quinoa and drizzle with the remaining sauce. Garnish with additional green onion if desired. 

BOOM! You'll be proud of yourself when you plate this one.

My Rating: 4/5 "Loved the mix of things in the quinoa. Really. Adored it. And salmon (one of my favorite foods) almost never goes amiss! The combination is great and healthy. My only real qualm with this was that the combination of mustard and maple syrup was just a titch weird. Not entirely off-putting, just unusual. But overall I really enjoyed this dish."