Kelly asked me to take part on her website and share with her readers not only the food we cook, but how we cook it. Creating some nutritional recipes for Kelly’s site sounded like a great idea to me! I’ve been cooking my entire life. I love cooking shows. I am a cooking GEEK! I have completely reinvented my cooking over the past 2 years and I’m honored and excited to share with you how Kelly and I prepare the foods we eat. I said I have been cooking my entire life, but I am by NO means a professional chef. I’m just like you! You CAN cook like this too. I plan on explaining the recipes plain and simple, in a very unique style! THANKS for this opportunity Kelly!
I’ve been cooking up some tasty treats for Kelly over the past 6 years as I mentioned, my inspiration has been Kelly. Now im finding that I am using various veggies in their own natural state, leaving out all the sauces. I’ve learned to layer flavors without sauces and sweets, the outcome has been amazing.
Herb Quinoa Summer Salad
Here is a great summer recipe. You can click on the image to blow it up. I was watching “Everyday Italian” on the cooking channel and saw Giadia make an Orzo (pasta) salad. I thought that something like this would be great if i substituted the orzo with some Quinoa. Now I will share with you how I cook! I dont use recipes! I don’t measure anything. What I do is create some inspiration inside of me about a dish. Watching that show inspired me to make something like that. I went into the kitchen and opened up the refrigerator and looked for inspiration for ingredients for this nutritional recipe. I found:
- Organic Arugula
- Organic Radishes
- Organic Grape Tomatoes
- Organic Italian Parsley
- Organic Spinach
- Organic Green Onion
- Organic quinoa
- Raw Sunflower Seeds
I set everything on our chopping block and got the quinoa started. I poured a about a cup of quinoa into a sauce pan and filled it with filtered water until the water was above the quinoa by about first bend in my pinky finger. I will give you rough measurements, but remember I told you I dont measure, you dont need to either, just do it, either fail or succeed and adjust the next time around, this makes things so much easier and so much more zen. They say food is made with love, well this is part of the love, feeling not measuring! Boil the quinoa, lower the flame to simmer, cover and forget it while you cut your veggies.
Take a large mixing bowl, I have a set of stainless steel that are great, pour in a few glugs of good olive oil, take a couple of tablespoons of dijon mustard and put that in too. Use a whisk and emulsify the oil and mustard together (emulsify is a fancy word for just mixing the two together until they look as one). I added a pinch of celtic course salt and a few grinds of fresh black pepper. To that I splashed some vinegar. I use only Braggs Apple Cider Vinegar. At this point, you should have a good bit of totally awesome dressing at the bottom of the bowl. You can use this for anything actually. Now I cut the grape tomatoes in half and toss them in the bowl. Grabbed a handful of arugula and poped that in the bowl. Cut up the radishes how I felt they would present nice in the dish (remember this is about feeling too!). I sprinkled in some organic garbonzo beans, but these are totally optional, especially if you are Paleo.
At this point the quinoa had about 75% of the water soaked up, it was looking good. But i wanted to make it look a bit more special and also carry some flavor. I added a few sprinkles of Turmeric and a few sprinkles of ground cumin. The turmeric adds a lovely yellow to the dish and a light hint of a middle east flavor along with the cumin. Go very easy on spices, you really dont need much, they are there to enhance, not overpower.
Back to my bowl, I chopped up a green onion, put a quick chop on the spinach and a very course chop on the parsley. I also took one serrano chili and chopped it up fine, we like a bit of a kick, you can leave this out of you wish. I dumped in some of the raw sunflower seeds and everything looked good to go. Back to the quinoa, it was looking ready. At this point I thought that this would be quite amazing if the salad was a bit warm. I set the quinoa aside for about 10 min to cool down a bit, but not too much.
Plating: Dump the warm quinoa in the bowl and now for the first time, fold all the ingredients together to incorporate the dressing that is at the bottom of the bowl. Folding is much better than stirring in this case as it keeps all the ingredients in tact. Grab some tongs or a few serving spoons and plate this into bowls. This dish can be a meal all by itself, or can be a nice side dish. You can even try plopping a nice chunk of grilled wild caught COHO salmon on top of this for a completely wonderful healthy meal.
Hope you enjoyed the recipe. I know the presentation did not have a traditional ingredient list and formal instructions, but that is the point. Be inspired and use what you have (or see on your shopping trip) Keep your kitchen stocked with choices! There are no rules, let your creativity flow, we feel this is all part of a healthy lifestyle.
Cheers!
Adam
Disclaimer: Please check with your doctor and have it cleared before beginning any new exercise or diet program. I am in no way a doctor, nutritionist, or registered dietician, my blog is opinion based and I do not claim to diagnose, treat, or cure any cause, condition or disease. All information provided is for informational purposes only; it is not medical advice and has not been approved by the FTC or FDA. Please always communicate with your doctor to make any decisions or changes regarding your health, as your doctor is the only one who knows what is right for you.