Apparently I'm on a Broccoli Quinoa salad kick, because that's all I seem to be craving recently. I think I like this one better than the last though. I'm a bigger fan of the classic dijon, balsamic, olive oil dressing instead of the broccoli pesto that went on the last one. I think throwing some acid in either a salad or soup (aka vinegar or lemon/lime juice) really just punches up the flavor a lot. So I happily ate this salad two nights in a row, once with
this soup that my lovely sister brought over (which is really good, incidentally), and then next night with a soup that I made (recipe below).
Contrary to her directions, I made all kinds of substitutions and changes. I roasted both broccolini and fennel (with salt, pepper, cayenne, red pepper flakes, coriander, & olive oil), and then I also chopped up some green bell pepper and threw it into the salad raw to add some more crunch. I didn't have a lemon in the house, so after contemplating and then rejecting using a lime, I just used a mix of white wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar in the dressing, made with dijon mustard instead of a grainy mustard. I also wanted to make a larger batch, so I used 1 1/2 cups of raw quinoa (cooked in 3 cups of water and a pinch of salt). And with all that, it turned out great.
I think quinoa salads are really quite forgiving. You can pretty well throw anything in there, and it tends to work out quite well.
Before heading out to a concert with some friends, I threw together some soup as well, to make a whole meal, along with some delicious rosemary bread from Trader Joe's.
I only had one shallot, so I used that and one onion. I didn't have quite enough mushrooms for the recipe, so I threw in some chopped celery with the shallot and onion, and then sprinkled the chopped celery tops over the soup with the rosemary oil at the end, to add some more green. All in all, it worked out as a nice little dinner before heading out for the night.
