Quinoa Revisited

So let’s get back to the quinoa kerfuffle. Well not so much a kerfuffle but more like a foofaraw. Or really it was just me being ridiculous…

Who knew that not all quinoas are created equal? I didn’t. It doesn’t make any sense. The times I’ve made quinoa I’ve used Ancient Harvest brand (comes in a turquoise box). For my tabouleh quinoa I got some from Whole Foods in their bulk section. Both are organic. Both come from Boliva. But the pot I steamed up from WF was light, fluffy, very non-swamp like.  It had a nutty flavor and a tender texture more like rice. The tabouleh was great. I cooked up 1 cup of quinoa. Once cooked I tossed it in a large bowl with a peeled and seeded cucumber, a wodge of flat leaf parsley, a smaller wodge of curly parsley, big handful mint (all herbs coarsely chopped), some very thinly sliced green onions (I think it was about 3). I mixed together ¼ cup olive oil and ¼ lemon juice (some s&p) and tossed the dressing over the salad. Pretty easy and so fresh and deelish.

Even something as simple
as tabouleh makes a mess in
the kitchen

(“What?” you say. “No tomatoes?”  I took a pledge to not eat tomatoes until they are in season. When are they in season? When they start harvesting them at The Farm or when I harvest them from my garden. Barbara Kingsolver writes about eating in season in her book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. At first it was hard but then I didn't even think about "missing out". Just think how awesome that first bite of summer tomato will be.)

My friend Manny suggested quinoa with currants, celery and a curry dressing. Stay tuned for “Quinoa Re-revisited!”