Crispy, Crunchy, Apple-Quinoa Salad

• 1 cup quinoa, uncooked
• 1 tablespoon sour cream
• 2 tablespoons walnut oil
• 1-1/2 tablespoons excellent balsamic vinegar (orange or tangerine flavored if possible)
• 1 tablespoon crystallized ginger (in bite sized chunks)
• 1 seedless, easy-peel mandarin type orange (Satsuma, mandarin, Clementine)
• grated zest from the orange
• 1/2 cup walnuts (pieces or halves)
• 2 crisp apples
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
• romaine or other leaf lettuce

1. Cook the quinoa, (I often use 1 cup water and 1 cup chicken stock, with 1 teaspoon salt)
2. Grate the zest from the orange. Separate the orange sections, removing all pith and skin
3. While the cooked quinoa is still warm, stir in the sour cream, walnut oil, balsamic, crystallized ginger, and orange zest. Refrigerate.
4. Toast walnuts at 350 degrees for 5 minutes. Let cool briefly
5. Leaving skin on, remove core from both apples. Chop one apple into bite-sized chunks. Cut the other into thin slices.
6. Add the apple chunks, orange sections, walnut pieces, and parsley to the quinoa. Stir to blend.
7. Serve the apple-quinoa salad on a bed of crisp lettuce leaves. Arrange apple slices decoratively around the quinoa.

quinoa, sour cream, walnut oil, excellent balsamic vinegar, ginger, easypeel mandarin type orange, orange, walnuts, crisp apples, parsley

Taken from food52.com/recipes/8785-crispy-crunchy-apple-quinoa-salad (may not work)