Middle Eastern Chickpea & Quinoa Salad

I found this recipe on Veg News, and it is YUMMY!  It originally calls for brown rice and roasted peppers, but I like quinoa better than rice salad.  Also, I do not like red peppers, so I omitted them.  My toddler loves olives and baby tomatoes, so I'm hoping she will like this salad.  

Serves 10

What You Need:

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
Peel of 1 lemon, cut into strips
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 minced garlic clove
2 red peppers, cut into wide strips  Bleck!
3-1/2 cups cooked quinoa
1 15-ounce can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
24 cherry tomatoes, halved
1 cup pitted kalamata olives
1 cucumber, peeled, deseeded, and diced
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup finely diced red onion

What You Do:

1. Preheat broiler. In a bowl, combine lemon juice, lemon peel, olive oil, and garlic. Set aside.
2. Place red peppers on baking sheet and broil until skin bubbles and starts to turn black. Remove peppers from broiler and place in a covered bowl for 5 minutes. Remove outer skin, and dice peppers.
3. In a large bowl, combine quinoa, beans, tomatoes, olives, cucumber, parsley, onion, and peppers and toss with lemon juice dressing.

Chef’s Tip: Depending on your preference, you can include the lemon peel in the salad or discard.