Adventures in Quinoa

Has anyone noticed that the price of bell peppers inexplicably shot through the roof? Seriously. They are like $4 a pop right now, right up there with $3 avocados and as a result I'm been skimping on my quinoa consumption. Usually, I make this amazing salad about once a week to have around for lunches and/or dinner, but I can't be expected to make it without avocado OR bell peppers! All I'd be left with would a bowl full of quinoa, lime juice, cumin, cilantro, green onions, black beans and toasted pumpkin seeds... which doesn't sound half bad now that I list all those delicious things out... but thats not the point! While disgusted by the price of avocados and bell peppers, and pondering what exactly we did to piss off Mexico and send produce prices through the roof (there is no fact in this... but I swear I heard something on NPR the other day...) I made a fantastic discovery... tomatoes are looking edible and affordable these days! Awesome. I bought a small bag of organic cherry tomatoes for $2 instead. Much better.

So instead of making my salad, which just isn't the same without satisfying chunks of avocado, I decided to make Quinoa-camole! Look at me branching out, eh? It is practically the same, but most drastically different because instead of the avocado and peppers (I think you get it by now) this salad uses tomatoes! And lime zest! Reviewing the recipe, I guess its not so similar... it is... and its not... you get the idea. Anyway, thanks, Wiggs, for inspiring me to move past my avocado/bell pepper obstacle. 

I have a tendency to not stick to the recipe....at all. Which is why my salad is nothing like the salad in the cookbook I originally found it in, and why this salad, which was inspired by quinoa-camole....is also nothing like quinoa-camole. What can I say? I'm a kitchen rebel. So this is what I did:

• 1 c quinoa, rinsed
• 1 1/2 c water

Bring water and quinoa to a boil. Lower heat, cover and cook for 15 minutes. In a separate bowl combine...

• chop one bunch cilantro and two green onions (or less, whatever. I am a cilantro fiend)
• quarter one pint cherry tomatoes
• zest one super juicy organic lime into bowl and squeeze juice over mixture (if your lime is not juicy, you might want to use two) 
• mix in 1 T cumin, salt, pepper and hot sauce to taste (okay, I threw in a little cayenne too... I am also a spice fiend...)
• rinse one can of black beans (or not canned if you have them lying around) and add to mixture
• add cooled quinoa

Optional (but totally delicious)...

• Toast raw pepitas in a skillet and add to quinoa salad. They add an interesting dimension. 

At this point.... you're done. Its easy. Awesome. Delicious. Good for you. The juice from the tomatoes give the quinoa-camole a much different feel than my avocado cilantro-lime concoction. Both tasty. Just different. 

A few years back I was having dinner at a co-op in the U district and someone told a joke along the lines of.... "whats the difference between a hippie and a yuppie?" (TONS of things, right?) "The yuppie sees food going bad and says, "ew, thats rotting throw it out" and the hippie says "quick eat that! before it goes bad!"" So anyway... I had some kale that was getting all wilty on me, so I chopped it up and threw it in - which worked grrrreat with all the juice from those tomatoes - but made this salad nothing like either of the salads I've been rambling on about. Just an idea.