“Moi j’adore le quinoa !” (I love quinoa!) Lulu exclaims as she reaches towards me across the dining table to grab a spoonful of quinoa from my plate.
I am caught off guard as I look at her put the food in her mouth with a smile that tells me she is proud of herself.
“Mais tu en as dans ton assiette !” (You have some in your plate!) I reply.
It makes her laugh even more.
I can not help but feel lucky that it’s happening in that way. Lulu indeed loves quinoa. Red. Black. Or white. P. and I like to joke about the fact that she knows that quinoa comes in three different colors. These days, I’ve noticed, it’s all about red because le rouge, she tells me, is one of her new favorite colors.
It’s cute to watch how changes in her taste happen.
For lunch, for example, quinoa is a staple when I am alone at home and I am craving protein-loaded food.
And I don’t mean to be scientific about it. Others do that much better than me. Yet the truth is that my relationship with quinoa lives there too, because every time I eat quinoa, my body feels comforted and relaxed.
Nourished the right way.
So in the end, I don’t need convincing that quinoa is being good to me.
When I am in a crunch time, quinoa is often my response for lunch.
The seeds (not a grain by the way) are incredibly easy to prepare: twelve minutes to cook is all it needs. I then build the rest around it, according to my time and mood.
At times, I prefer it warm, eaten plain to accompany a plate of sunny face up fried eggs with a salad of mixed greens on the side.
Or, I use it as the basis to a full-flavored salade composée.
Yesterday, as I walked into the kitchen with a hungry belly after a morning spent in the garden to plant, I looked for a quick solution for lunch. I had a bowl of blanched fava beans kept for another cooking project, and local asparagus bought the afternoon before. Quinoa, I knew, would be fast to prepare.
There, I saw the promise of a spring-like salad.
A nutritious one-in-all salad for lunch.
That’s where it started.
And the next day, I repeated it.
Because it left me exactly as anticipated.
Happy and fullfilled.
You need:
- Olive oil
- 4 green purple green asparagus, sliced
- 1 garlic clove, finely minced
- Sea salt and pepper
- 1 tablespoon lemon Juice (from 1/2 lemon)
- 1 teaspoon tahini
- 1 teaspoon chopped chives
- 1 teaspoon chopped parsley
- 1 cup (160 g) cooked quinoa
- 1/3 cup (60 g) blanched and peeled** fava beans
- 1 punces (30 g) red grapes, halved
- 1 orange, peeled and sliced in fine membranes (without the white skin)
- 3 pink radishes, finely sliced with a mandoline
- 1 ounce crumbled fresh soft goat cheese
- A few radish shoots (I used some from my garden) or micro greens
Steps:
- In a frying pan, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat. When warm, add the asparagus. Cook for 1 minute, stirring.
- Add the garlic and cook for one more minute–the asparagus need to stay crunchy. Transfer to a bowl and leave to cool. Season with salt and pepper; set aside.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the lemon juice and tahini. Season with salt and pepper.
- Add 3 tablespoons olive oil and whisk to emulsify. Add 3/4 of the mixed herbs and set aside.
- To assemble the salad, in a bowl, toss together the quinoa, fava beans, and asparagus. Add the grapes, orange, radishes, goat cheese.
- Toss gently with the dressing.
- Transfer to a plate and finish with extra fresh herbs and radish shoots.
**Once cleaned, the fava beans only need 1 minute cooking time in boiling water. Cook in ice water bath and then peel from their small shells.
Such a fresh recipe! Love the combination quinoa, fava beans and orange!
What a lovely and fresh salad! My almost 2 year old adores quinoa too, feeling very blessed 🙂
Off topic but … are you happy for your utterly wonderful photos to be put on Pinterest? I completely understand if you’re not!
Superbes salades, vraiment. J’adore aussi le quinoa, c’est croustillant et bon pour nous!
The colors in these photos are beautiful.
This salad looks like the perfect lunch for any springtime day.
xo Quinn
Quinn Cooper Style
Hello there, Nice presentation of images.. Looking forward to see your next posts..
Sure Suzy. As long as they are credited and linked back. Thanks for asking.
Very nice pictures! We can feel the spring just by looking at them! 🙂
This is beautiful- I usually use edamame instead since I have the hardest time finding fava beans. Great idea to add citrus! Have a wonderful weekend!
Hum , Je suis vegetarienne et cette recette me fais tres envie. merci
PS: J’adooooore aussi la quinoa
I love quinoa too! Your pictures are so beautiful and you inspire me to become a better photographer! Have a wonderful weekend! 🙂
What beautiful colors you have captured in this post. Happy Mother’s Day, Bea!!
Such a beautiful story and a beautiful salad. It looks so good!
hey, am eating quinoa and fava beans too but it had shrimp also 🙂
Total yum! I love all the fresh spring flavors in this recipe, Bea 🙂
Thank you – your pics should be see by as many people as possible!
Oooooo how enticing does this one look? Quinoa is a daily protein go to for me as well… This salad compose looks divine, I can’t wait to try it out!
Looks great and I have everything on hand. I often make something similar but using the three colors with fava, radish, avocado and a mache and baby greens mixed in with a Meyer lemon vinaigrette. Yours sounds wonderful too. Happy Mother’s Day.
Je vous lis depuis votre présence à la Di Stasio.
Et je pratique vos recettes également.
Merci du Québec !
this salad is gorgeous, and an inspiration for feeding my toddler! in a crunch i fall back on bread/cheese classics, but i know that isn’t the most healthy. quinoa is easy to make and dress up, i should definitely do it more!
Such a gorgeous lunch! Love!
oh lord, this look tasty!
❤
Blog da Sandra Costa
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Je n’ai jamais mangé de kinoa mais avec cette appétissante recette je l’essaie dès demain ! Au fait, qu’est-ce que les “fava beans” en français ?
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We love this recipe so much. It is now a bookmarked shortcut! I use any summer fruit to add – mango, peaches or apricot all make a great substitute. My mother it taking home the recipe to South Africa. Merci beau coup!
waw thank you for sharing,
very beautiful photos 🙂
and this salade look yummyyyyyyy
rola
Love the lighting for this photo Mise en place for the salade composée – and the green colour in the beans bowl, you have nailed it – beautiful!
appétissante recette je l’essaie dès demain ! Au fait, qu’est-ce que les “fava beans” en français ?