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| Quinoa, Fruit and Nut Salad |
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| My winter garden with our morning snow! April Fools!! |
Today is April Fool's day! Mother Nature has played yet, another prank on us. We woke up to more snow falling from the spring sky! This is the fourth snow storm we have had, since the first day of spring! My little daffodils are so confused!! As I peruse the blogisphere, I read about people starting their gardens and I am so jealous! I yearn for the long days of summer where I spend hours getting my hands dirty digging, planting and enjoying the fruits of my labor. I know it's right around the corner. In the mean time, I will have to make my salads with the ingredients I get from my grocery store. The salad I made last night was a lovely grain salad. I really enjoy grain salads. I grew up with them! Tabbouleh was the salad of choice in our family. Cracked wheat was in just about everything my mother and grandmother made. I also make a wonderful Wheat Berry Waldorf salad from my Whole Foods Cookbook. Dorie's salad calls for quinoa as it's main ingredient. I've had quinoa for breakfast with milk and blueberries but, never in a savory salad. I was intrigued to try this recipe. First of all, this was so easy to make. I felt like I was cheating! I started by boiling my quinoa. While it was cooking, I chopped some apricots. I decided to use cranberries and apricots for my fruit. For the nuts, I choose sunflower seeds and walnuts. I then followed the recipe as it was written, until I tasted it. I thought it lacked some flavor…so I added some cinnamon! Hey, I'm Lebanese, we put cinnamon in just about everything! For me it was the kick this salad needed. I really enjoyed this salad and will make it again. In fact, I am looking forward to having it for lunch today! I did serve it with the yogurt on top but, I think this salad stands alone quite well. I will eat it with no embellishments today!
As I say every week, this recipe can be found in Dorie Greenspans new cookbook "Around My French Table". You should get yourself a copy!
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| Quinoa, cranberries, nuts |
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| The quinoa simmering |
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| Everything getting mixed up! |
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| A very lovely salad! |
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| My hyacinths covered with snow. |
Your salad turned out beautiful! I used dried cranberries too. It's so hot on this island I would gladly trade this heat for some snow... My a/c is working overtime!
ReplyDeleteOoh, cinnamon sounds like a great addition! Your photos look great.
ReplyDeleteI agree with chunklet - love the idea of cinnamon! Hope your snow melts soon and Spring shows it's sunny face! :)
ReplyDeleteReading the other Doristas who used fresh fruit made it clear how much of a morning dish this COULD be. Perhaps, SHOULD be.
ReplyDeleteStay warm!
Thanks for your support, Kathy! LOL! This looks great - and, I agree with Trevor, this would be great for breakfast.
ReplyDeleteFantastic Photos. You have a pretty salad there.
ReplyDeleteYour salad looks great! I must have missed the part about yogurt. I think I would like it better without anyway. Nice job.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful, your salad looks good. I'm sorry for your long cold snowy Winter, soon it will warm up and your hyacinth will bloom;-)
ReplyDeleteThe greens and reds look so pretty in your bowl! So glad you enjoyed this one, too~
ReplyDeleteYour photos are really stunning ! I chuckled as I saw your "winter garden". Nana and I were greeted by April Fool's in Philedelphia with quite a bit of snow. Could not believe it. Luckily this dish has us planning for BBQ's and grilled meats in warmer weather. We can dream, no ? And love the idea of cinnamon. I am SO trying this for breakfast.
ReplyDeleteLooks great, Kathy! Cinnamon sounds like a delicious addition. If you helps with your "spring envy", your hyacinths are up several inches more than mine. Mine are just barely up... BTW, I picked up a bag of the Brown Rice Medley I saw on your post last week. Can't wait to try it. I love grains!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your compliment on the birds' nest cupcakes! This weekend I am making a cranberry bean and black quinoa salad that they were making at Williams and Sonoma last weekend. W&S is now selling beans and grains. Your quinoa salad looks delicious.
ReplyDeleteThe quinoa is looking so good and inviting. loved the additions of nuts and fresh fruits to enhance its flavor !
ReplyDeleteI love the picture of the salad just waiting to be tossed. It looks so pretty!
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry that you got another snow storm! But the photo is so pretty. I can just imagine how lovely your garden is in the summer. It won't be long...! Your salad looks wonderful and I love your photos. I really like your idea of adding cinnamon and I am going to try that tomorrow!
ReplyDeleteSnow on April 1st is very unwelcome, but so are 100* days!! Blueberries, cinnamon, and milk all sound great ... think I need to buy some more quinoa!
ReplyDeleteMy lawn looked just like that yesterday morning! I have garden envy too... I did see a weed next to the house where the snow melted away though. So I guess that's just like a garden, right?
ReplyDeleteYour salad looks great.
I had been planning to make a similar salad lately; I have yet to try quinoa, need to get to it, I hear it is so nutritious and delicious as well and versatile like bulgur; well I have to wait a while. Your garden will look great in just a few weeks, patience!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful post and pictures! I love the idea of adding cinnamon. I think it would have been really good with all of the fruit and nuts. I'll have to try that next time!
ReplyDeleteYour salad looks great! My poor bulbs are confused also. My hyacinth came up at the end of March, just in time for snow the last weekend in March. It ended up blooming with three tiny blooms this weekend, when our temp reached 90!
ReplyDeleteBummer about the snow! Spring has finally sprung here in So Cal. Cinnamon is a great idea. I also like the idea of quinoa for breakfast with blueberries and milk...I'll definitely give that a try.
ReplyDeleteYour winter garden picture looks so beautiful. I have never experienced having snow in April. And your quinoa salad looks and sounds just heavenly.
ReplyDeleteHi Kathy it's Lauren Camel. My mom sent me your blog and I am checking it out right now. Wanted to tell you I made a Quinoa Tabbouleh dish for a Thanksgiving potluck and it was soooo delicious!!
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