So this week’s recipe ended up being not so pretty to look at, but is definitely good enough to eat. I was excited to make this recipe – we LOVE quinoa at our house! You can find our favorite quinoa recipe here – it’s actually on the menu at our house this week.
This was a fairly simple salad, I used raisins and walnuts in ours. I would have liked to have tried some other fruits and nuts, but a trip to the grocery store was not in the cards yesterday. I had a fairly full day which included driving one hour to the North End of the Island to get soccer cleats for my son and then another hour home – when I got home my husband looked at the cleats and quickly informed me they were for baseball, not soccer. I had absolutely no clue that there were different cleats for different sports!
If I had only skipped the trip up North and spent some time at the grocery store I think the dish could have been much improved! I am looking forward to trying it again with some dried cranberries and blueberries. I also thought a little feta cheese might be nice?
*What is French Fridays with Dorie? An online cooking group dedicated to working our way through Dorie Greenspan’s newest book, Around My French Table. We try a new recipe each week and post about it on Fridays. If you’re interested you can pick up a copy of the book and follow along with us here.
yummychunklet
/ April 1, 2011I like your idea of adding dried blueberries. Nice twist!
Sis. Boom.
/ April 1, 2011Yes, the blueberries do sound great! Thanks to the link to your recipe. I’m all about quinoa right now. lovely!
Allison
/ April 1, 2011While I was making it I kept thinking about feta cheese too… This is the transformer of all salads!
Cher
/ April 1, 2011Very nice! This definitely is a free-form kind of dish. I am sure the blueberries would be wonderful. I know that cranberries were awfully nice.
And isn’t it amazing how sneakers are not just sneakers? I went through that when I had to first buy racing flats w/ spikes for my girl. You’ll figure it out!
Chef Pandita
/ April 1, 2011Feta cheese sounds interesting. Cheese makes everything better
Tricia S.
/ April 1, 2011Where has quinoa been all my life. OK – not quite like I just found chocolate, but I did like this one. Nana was a bit more hesitant but is always game. Since we have a boatload of our Costco bag left I imagine we will be trying variations on this one in the future. I am really happy with how healthy it is and how easily it can make a big bowl of “brown bag lunches” for my work week. Always need new ideas there…..
Christina
/ April 1, 2011Feta would be perfect in this salad! I just bought dried blueberries earlier this week. If I hadn’t used them all up, some of them would have made it into my salad as well. Next time!
Mary
/ April 1, 2011Thank you so much for linking to another quinoa recipe.
Adriana
/ April 1, 2011A salty bite of feta cheese would definitely pop out in this already awesome salad. I also use quinoa in chili!
Elaine
/ April 2, 2011Feta cheese would take this dish in a totally different direction. I think that’s what I like about this seed is its versatility! I checked out the link to you other recipe and am intrigued that you made chili with it! Wow, that one I am going to have to try.
Betsy
/ April 2, 2011Feta would be great with this! I had no idea there were different kinds of cleats for different sports. Hmpf!
Christina
/ April 2, 2011I love reading through all the French Friday comments – it’s so fun to see what everyone else does with the recipe. And I am so glad that I am not alone in my sport cleat ignorance!!!
Lana
/ April 3, 2011I agree, quinoa by itself is pretty drab looking – still delicious, but hardly photogenic. Blueberries and feta would be great additions. I lucked out as I had some dried apricots left over from making granola and the orange splash of color was just the right touch.
Lana
/ April 3, 2011I agree, quinoa by itself is pretty drab looking – still delicious, but hardly photogenic. Blueberries and feta would be great additions. I lucked out as I had some dried apricots left over from making granola and the orange splash of color was just the right touch.
As for cleats, I think I might recognize the soccer ones as I grew up in Europe, but had no clue that baseball shoes had cleats, too!
Teresa
/ April 6, 2011I used dried cranberries and blueberries and it was really good. I think this recipe is a perfect base to add whatever you have on hand. It’s great for packed lunches, too.
I think I would have made the same mistake as you with the cleats – no idea that there are different ones for different sports.