Quinoa, Black-bean, Vegetable Salad with Lime Dressing

Hey everyone! Sorry for the slow posting, I am currently taking summer courses and their condensed nature seems to be occupying a lot of my time! Because I have been so busy lately, I've been focusing more and more on quick, easy meals and this week I decided to make a fabulous quinoa salad that is chock full of tasty things. I've only recently discovered quinoa and am enjoying how cheap and versatile it is. I am also very impressed by how good it is for you: 1 cup of uncooked quinoa has 41% of your daily intake of thiamine, 41% of your daily intake of vitamin B6, 78% of your daily intake of folate, 5061 mg of Omega-6 fatty acids, 84% of your daily intake of magnesium, and 43% of your daily intake of iron. I find that it reminds me of couscous in the way that you can pretty much add anything to it and it stretches your meals but I find the texture to be more interesting and enjoyable than couscous. I personally think that quinoa should be part of anyone's diet.

(with some adjustments, courtesy of serious eats: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2008/09/black-bean-tomato-quinoa-healthy-delicious-recipe.html )
Ingredients:

-2 teaspoons grated lime zest

-2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

-1 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

-1 tablespoon vegetable oil

-1 teaspoon sugar

-1/2 teaspon salt

-1/4 teaspoon pepper

-1 cup quinoa

-1 vegetable stock cube

-1 (14- to 15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained

-2 medium tomatoes, diced

-2 avocadoes, diced

-4 scallions, chopped

Directions:

1. Whisk the first 4 ingredients in a bowl, set aside.

2. In a pot, bring 2 cups of water to a bowl. Add quinoa and vegetable stock cube and bring back to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to medium. Cook for 12 minutes and remove from heat. Fluff quinoa with a fork and let stand for 15 minutes, or until cool.

3.Transfer quinoa to a bowl and add dressing, stirring until well combined. Add the rest of the ingredients and serve.

Should yield at least 5-6 servings.

Nutritional information (per 1 serving, if there is 5 servings in total): 454.1 calories, 18.6 grams of fat, 3.2 grams of saturated fats, 661.2 mg of sodium, 6 mg of cholesterol, 57.7 grams of carbohydrates, 17.12 grams of fiber, 2.4 grams of sugar, 16.52 grams of protein

-1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro