Quinoa and Edamame Summer Salad

First recipe in ages! This salad, along with a (shamefully box-made) angel food cake were my contributions to a Fourth of July picnic, where we cursed the heatwave and oohed and aaahhed at the lovely fire boats (and later, stuffed with quinoa, the fireworks) on the Hudson. Besides being ridiculously healthy, this salad is perfect for a heatwave because it requires minimal cooking and tastes excellent cold. After staring into my pantry and freezer for a bit o I googled "quinoa and edamame"

Quinoa and Edamame Salad

1 1/2 cups dry quinoa (rinse it well!)
3 cups water

1 lb (one large bag) thawed, shelled edamame
1 large carrot, grated
1/2 c. chives, finely chopped

1/4 cup sesame oil*
2 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp mirin
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 tsp grated ginger
1 tbsp sesame seeds (toasted, if you want)

*I used a combination of spicy sesame oil, peanut oil, and canola oil, because I was running out of everything that day. I definitely recommend some sort of spicy element.

Cook the quinoa in a rice cooker (best for hot days) or according to the directions on the box. Let it cool for ten or twenty minutes, then mix in the vegetables.

Whisk together the oil, rice vinegar, mirin, soy sauce, sesame seeds, and ginger to make the dressing. Drizzle onto the salad and mix through well. Cover and chill in the fridge for at least an hour to let the dressing soak in.

Obviously this is one of those recipes to which you can add virtually whatever strikes your fancy/is in your fridge. The original poster used cherries in hers, but I'm not a huge fan so I left them out. It might be good with some red apple slices, though.

This might be my new favorite picnic food, because I'm addicted to edamame and it's much cheaper to make than the feta-and-pine-nut-filled cous cous salad I usually do for picnics. I might not use black sesame seeds next time, though, because at one point I thought ants had gotten into it! Do ants even live in New York? I don't think I've seen one the whole time I've been here.