Spinach and Quinoa Salad with Grapefruit and Avocado

Part of living in Southern California is the citrus trees, they are in abundant!! We have a lemon tree in our front yard and many of our neighbors have oranges and grapefruit trees as well. We went on a walk and there was a great big tree laden with fresh grapefruit, we asked the neighbor if we could pick a few and were told to help ourselves! They were beautiful and smelled and tasted even better! 

I am subscribed to a blog called skinnytaste.com and came across this lovely recipe... Spinach and Quinoa Salad with Grapefruit and Avocado  it looked so yummy and with the grapefruit we decided to try it! It is a simple recipe and we pretty much stuck to the original the only change is we added some strawberries to it. 

Ingredients

4 oz baby spinach

2 ruby red grapefruits, peeled and fruit separated, reserving 3 slices

1 haas avocados, diced

1 cup cooked quinoa (1/3 cup dry)

For the Citrus Vinaigrette:

1 1/2 tbsp olive oil

1 1/2 tbsp champagne vinegar (we used whit vinegar)

2 tbsp chopped shallots (we used onion)

salt and pepper to taste

grapefruit juice from 3 reserved slices of grapefruit

Rinse quinoa well under cold water and cook according to package directions. Drain and let it cool. 

Peel the skin and white membrane off the grapefruit and separate the pieces.Reserve three grapefruit slices for the vinaigrette and squeeze the juice; set aside.Cut up the remaining grapefruit into small pieces for the salad.

In a medium bowl whisk the olive oil, grapefruit juice (from 3 slices of grapefruit), vinegar, chopped shallots, salt and pepper.

In a large bowl toss spinach, quinoa, avocado, grapefruit and vinaigrette.

 We divided the grapefruit and strawberries between the plates first then tossed each plate individually. 

Picture from skinnytaste I added so you could see how beautiful it is! 

Obviously my photography isn't as good as hers! 

It was very tasty and refreshing! The only change I would of have made would be to add  a little less grapefruit juice for the dressing because it made it a little too tart for my liking.