Green, Green, Green and White Quinoa Salad (with Asparagus, Cucumbers and Peas)

green, green, green and white quinoa salad

I love the colours of this salad – all the soft green shades of spring-going-into-summer.

Our asparagus patch is providing us with a bounty of thick, crisp stalks to steam, grill, roast and eat raw in salads. What a treat to gorge ourselves on this favourite green vegetable. I like nothing better than to break a spear off and crunch it as I’m walking around the garden lamenting all the weeds popping up from the continuous rain showers we’ve been having (never mind the wild windstorms and several tornado warnings to add excitement).

This truly is seasonal eating at its best, and I’m thrilled that the asparagus patch is finally mature enough to produce plenty of spears for us to indulge ourselves almost daily. It’s taken several years of tender, loving care to get it here. . . digging sand into the soil, and adding manure, and weeding, and watering and mostly waiting, waiting, waiting for the plants to mature.

fresh asparagus and  chives

My favourite quick way to eat asparagus is to break the spears off at the point where they break naturally when bent (saving the ends in the freezer to add flavour to soup stocks), cutting the spears into 2 to 3 inch pieces, and briefly sautéeing them in hot olive oil (just till they turn bright green all over). I give them a sprinkle of fine sea salt and fresh ground pepper and bring them to the table. Mmmmmm . . .

I often add a raw spear or two of asparagus, thinly sliced on the diagonal, to green salads. It tastes of fresh green peas with a slight but pleasant bitterness and adds a wonderfully juicy crunch.

For this quinoa salad, however, I briefly blanch the asparagus, to get that gorgeous emerald colour and make each morsel fully sweet and juicy. Bright, tender green peas, fresh cucumber, chives, and feathery green fronds of dill complete the palette of greens for a salad that goes so well with any summer menu. Its flavour is light and fresh – an especially good complement to grilled shrimp or salmon.

And with the powerful protein hit of quinoa and the good amount of fiber in this salad, I find the leftovers perfectly filling as a lunch the next day.

Kitchen Frau Notes: If you use frozen peas, they can be put into the salad frozen and will thaw by the time it is served – plus they help chill the salad. Frozen peas are already blanched before freezing. If you use fresh shelled peas, just tip them into the blanching water with the asparagus.

English cucumber is the kind you can eat with the skin on and has less noticeable seeds. I like the green colour of the skin in this salad. If you only have regular cucumbers, you will need to peel them, and you may have to scrape out the seeds if they are too large and watery.

You can easily substitute green ingredients in this salad – try frozen edamame beans instead of peas, or slice and blanch fresh green beans instead of asparagus, use celery instead of cucumber, or parsley instead of dill . . .

This recipe makes a lot, but it is really lovely packed in a container to take to work for next day’s lunch.

green, green, green and white quinoa salad with asparagus, cucumber and peas

Green and White Quinoa Salad with Asparagus, Cucumbers and Peas

-inspired by a salad I had at my friend Norine’s house.

  • 4 cups (960ml) cooked quinoa (about 1 cup/240ml raw) -see how to cook it here
  • ¾ pound (350gms) fresh asparagus (about 12 stalks, or 2 cups/500ml when sliced)
  • 2 cups (500ml) frozen baby peas (or fresh peas)
  • 2 cups (500ml) diced English cucumber
  • ½ cup (120ml) minced chives or green onions
  • ½ cup (120ml) chopped fresh dill (stems removed)

dressing:

  • ¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon (75ml) grapeseed oil
  • 4 tablespoons (60ml) white wine vinegar
  • ¾ teaspoon dry mustard
  • ¾ teaspoon fine sea salt
  • ½ teaspoon white pepper

Cook, cool, and measure the quinoa.

Heat a small saucepan of water to boil. Have a bowl of cold water ready beside the stove.

Slice the asparagus into ¼ inch (.5cm) slices on the diagonal.

asparagus and chives for the quinoa salad

When the water boils, put the asparagus pieces (and the peas if using fresh ones) into the water and let them cook just until they all turn bright green (usually 1 to 2 minutes – the water may just come back to a complete boil). Scoop them out with a slotted spoon or wire strainer and plop them into the cold water to stop the boiling process. When cool, drain them.

In a large bowl, put the cooked quinoa, blanched asparagus, peas, cucumber, chives and dill.

peas, cucumbers, asparagus and dill for the green and white quinoa salad

Whisk together the dressing ingredients in a small bowl and pour over the salad. Toss to combine. It may taste like there’s too much vinegar, but it will absorb into the quinoa within a short time.

green, green, green and white quinoa salad with asparagus, peas and cucumber

Makes 10 cups salad – to serve a crowd or a smaller bunch with leftovers to fight over for lunch the next day.

Guten Appetit!

You might also like:

Quinoa Crunch Salad

Aspargaus and Shrimp Potato Salad with Lemon Tarragon Dressing

Spinach and Salmon Salad Rolls

Bacon, Egg and Spinach Salad with Mustard and Miso Vinaigrette

How to Cook Quinoa

Posted in Dairy-free, Gardening, Gluten-free, Grains/Seeds/Rice, Herbs, Salads, Vegetarian | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

The Canadian Food Experience Project: Buttery Sauteed Mushrooms with Spruce Tips and Chives

Sauteed mushrooms with spruce tips and chives

There’s something exciting underway in the Canadian food blogging world. It’s called The Canadian Food Experience Project and it’s going to be a great focus on the wonderful and varied food culture we have here in Canada. Valerie, of the blog A Canadian Foodie is hosting it. On the 7th of each month I, and a bevy of other bloggers, will put up a post relating to a Canadian food topic, then on the 15th of the month all the links will be posted for you to check out. I think it will be a lot of fun!

This month’s topic (I’m a little late out of the starting gate) is:

My First Authentic Canadian Food Memory

The word ‘foraging’ springs to my mind immediately. . . for mushrooms, and stinging nettles, and tea herbs, and wild rose hips, and roots, and a host of wild berries of all kinds. My parents were German immigrants filled with knowledge of the many edible plants and foods to be found in the wild. They had both lived through extreme poverty and hardship during the war years and post-war time in Europe. Their survival often depended on what they could glean from the fields, forests and streams. My dad talked about catching homemade nets full of minnows in the ditches, which his mother ground whole into delicious ‘fish burgers’ and about he and his brothers catching swallows in deserted barn lofts to be cooked in soup. They were thankful to pick the meat off the tiny bones. My mom remembers picking nettles and herbs to be used in teas and for healing (both people and animals) and gleaning whatever grains or vegetables they could scrounge from the harvested fields.

When my parents and their families arrived in Canada as immigrants in the 1950′s, they brought with them all that knowledge. No, they didn’t need to catch swallows and minnows any more, but they continued their foraging ways whenever they could. My dad was a hunter and fisherman, so we ate a lot of fish (definitely bigger than minnows) and wild meat, prepared in lip-smackingly tasty ways by my mom. My mom has a deep addiction to wild berry picking. She still spends days-at-a-time every summer picking wild blueberries and huckleberries and saskatoons, filling pails and pails of the sweet berries.

When we were children, berry-picking days were one of summer’s great pleasures, for many reasons. There was the break from daily chores and farm work. (Although cleaning and sorting and canning and freezing the berries awaited us when we got home.) There was the pleasure of filling our bellies (more than our pails) with the plump and juicy berries.  And there was the promise of adventure. . . because we could always find berry-studded bear droppings or find the flattened grass wallows where the bears had had their little afternoon naps after feasting on the berries. Foraging provided food for our bellies and our imaginations!

My first memory of foraged food, though, is of juicy, flavourful wild mushrooms sauteed in butter – each bite a little burst of golden, earthy goodness. After a rain, my parents went mushroom hunting, usually in fields where cattle roamed – the grassy manure made a prime mushroom-growing environment. Mom and Dad knew which ones to pick, my mom knew how to cook them to toothsome perfection, and we all knew how to eat them with appreciation.

I don’t trust myself in the same way, so my mushroom picking is restricted to choosing the smoothest, firmest ones in the grocery store bins. I wish I had more courage to pick them myself, but the stories we were told as children, about people who took only one small bite of a poisonous mushroom and immediately dropped dead, have developed the healthy fear in me that I’m sure my parents intended. My imagination pictured those poor people writhing in agony before succumbing to their tortured demise. Mom and Dad didn’t want us picking any old mushroom we found growing in the fields or forests. Their stories worked.

So, no, I’m too scaredy-cat to pick my own mushrooms. However, I do know that we have edible mushrooms growing in the trees right behind our house. A few years ago when we were having our floors replaced, the contractor doing the work was from the Ukraine. During a lunch break he asked me if I minded him picking the mushrooms in our forest. I said ‘sure’ and was totally surprised to see him come out of the trees only a short time later with two plastic grocery bags filled and bulging with mushrooms, that he claimed were a delicious variety.

Hmmm . . . tempting, but . . .nope. . . .still too scared to pick my own. (And I never saw that contractor again to see if he survived.)

A plateful of golden pan-fried mushrooms brings me back to those childhood days, when we celebrated the bounty to be found in nature, prepared simply and enjoyed within a short time of their harvest. I know mushrooms aren’t exclusive to Canada, but to me they embody the Canadian spirit of living off the land and enjoying nature’s gifts.

sauteed mushrooms with spruce tips and chives

Right now is spruce-tip season here in northern Canada, so I can think of nothing better than the resinous flavour of this herbal delicacy to enhance the earthiness of the buttery sauteed mushrooms – a match that makes my mouth water. And the spruce tips were definitely foraged by me from my own trees . . . I know they’re safe.

If you have never used fresh spruce tips in your cooking, I urge you to try them. Every spring, my mom eats a few of them whenever she is gardening, just because. I think her instincts are sound, because spruce tips are full of vitamin C. They are delicious  - lemony and piney at the same time.

spruce tips ready for the picking

If you have a spruce, or pine, or other fir tree in your yard (or your neighbour’s), you have a source for a seasonal delicacy.

a bowl full of spruce tips

Just pick off the new growth buds at the ends of the branches, remove the brown papery casing and use them to flavour all sorts of dishes, like potatoes and desserts. You can pick the spruce tips even after they are no longer tight buds, as long as they are still soft and not too tough or resiny-tasting.

spruce tips are like a tasty herb

You can use them as tight buds, like on the left, up until they are opened up but still tender, like on the right.

Kitchen Frau Notes: If you collect your spruce tips from a location where they aren’t exposed to exhaust fumes from vehicles, you don’t even need to wash them, because they will be clean and protected inside their papery husks. Just check for bug bites, but those are rare. If the tips are older, or near a road, give them a quick rinse and shake them dry.

You can use the tips from any needled tree. Taste them first, as some are more ‘piney’ than others. You may need less of the stronger tasting ones.

Don’t worry about damaging the spruce trees – you are actually doing them a favour, and pruning them to grow even bushier by nipping off the tips. Try to spread your picking around different parts of the tree, rather than picking one area clean. Just don’t pick the tip off the leader at the very top of a young tree, as that could disturb its growth.

The spruce tips last for up to a week in the fridge if kept loosely covered.

sauteed mushrooms with spruce tips and chives

Sauteed Mushrooms with Spruce Tips and Chives

  • 2 tablespoons salted butter
  • 4 cups small white button mushrooms (11oz/320gms)
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon chopped spruce tips
  • 2 tablespoons minced chives (or green onions)
  • light sprinkling of pepper

Wash the mushrooms under running water, then leave them to dry on a tea towel or paper towel until most of the moisture is off. Pat them lightly with the towel to speed the process. If your mushrooms are large, cut them in halves (or even quarters if really large).

sauteed mushrooms with spruce tips and chives

In a heavy skillet over medium heat, melt the butter until it starts to sizzle and smell nutty, just beginning to brown slightly. Tip in the mushrooms and sprinkle them with the salt. (The salt helps draw the moisture out of the mushrooms.)

Saute the mushrooms, stirring them often, so they brown on several sides, for 8 to 10 minutes. First, the liquid will be released from the mushrooms, but keep cooking them until this liquid is cooked away and the mushrooms start to brown. Once the liquid is evaporated you will need to stir them more often.

chopping the spruce tips and chives

When the mushrooms have all turned a deep golden colour on several sides, sprinkle them with the chopped spruce tips and chives. Cook them for 1 minute more, stirring constantly.

sauteed mushrooms with spruce tips and chives

Remove the pan from the heat, give them a very light sprinkling of pepper (you don’t want to overpower their delicate flavour), and tip them into a small serving bowl, scraping all the lovely butter and sprucy, chivey bits into the bowl, too.

Serves 4 as a side dish.

In the words of Andreas: Those mushrooms are amazing.

 Guten Appetit!

 You might also like:

Spruce Tips and Potatoes and Cream

Spruce Tip (or Basil) Baked Rhubarb Compote over Silky Swedish Cream

Fresh Trout, Morels, and a Side of Bannock

Ode to the Lowly, Lovely Chayote Squash

Coconut and Curry Carrot Puree

The Canadian Food Experience Project began June 7, 2013. As we, the participants, share our collective stories across the vastness of our Canadian landscape through our regional food experiences, we hope to bring global clarity to our Canadian culinary identity through the cadence of our concerted Canadian voice. Please join us.

What is your first Canadian food experience? I’d love to hear. If you want to share, drop me a line in the comments link below!

I will share the link to the round-ups each month on my facebook page. If you ‘like’ my page at the top right side of this post, you will be able to view the links.

 

Posted in Gluten-free, Herbs, Side dishes, Vegetables, Vegetarian | Tagged , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Cantaloupe Creamsicle Smoothie

 

cantaloupe creamsicle smoothie

Orange Crush was my favourite soda pop flavour when I was a kid. That heavy glass bottle, frosty-cold and dripping with condensation on a sweltering summer day. The sweet, citrusy nectar slipping down my parched throat, followed by the delicious burn of the carbonation . . . oooh, so thirst-quenching and absolutely heavenly.

The reality is, I probably drank less bottles of Orange Crush in my whole childhood than I could count on all my fingers and toes – soda pop was a very rare and special treat, reserved for birthdays and holidays – and usually shared (one bottle amongst several of us sisters). My father kept a large nail in the glove compartment of our car – not for car emergencies, but for special thirst emergencies. On long trips in the summer time, when he pulled into a gas station to tank up, my younger sisters and I would hold our breaths in anticipation, not daring to ask, but oh-so-fervently-hoping that he would zip into the station to return with a dripping Orange Crush bottle he’d pulled out of the ice-filled cooler.

Giggles of anticipation accompanied his ritual of placing the nail-tip on the top of the metal bottle cap, giving it a sharp whack with his hand, or a tool (or even a big rock) if he had one handy, and handing us the bottle of orange ambrosia, with a perfect drip-less hole in the top. That was his clever pre-sippee cup adaptation. All was quiet in the back seat as we passed the bottle back and forth, rationing the sips and making the pop last as long as possible, until the last warmed-from-our-hands and fizz-less drops were drained from the bottle.

Smart guy. That one bottle kept us as quiet as the built-in movie screen on the seatbacks do nowadays – and much cheaper, too.

I think that’s why I’ve always loved the zesty flavour of oranges, and in those years, if I got to choose a frozen treat – it was always a Creamsicle. The bright combination of citrusy orange pop and creamy vanilla ice cream transported me right back to those Orange Crush days.

In my teen years my love affair with orange continued. To get more of my fix, I made my own special version of a Creamsicle as an ice cream float – a big frosty glass beer mug filled with several scoops of vanilla ice cream, then topped up with pure unsweetened orange juice (usually made from frozen orange juice concentrate). I devoured a lot of those. That kind of orange juice float is so much better than a soda pop float, I think – less sweet and with much more real orange flavour.

This Cantaloupe Creamsicle Smoothie came about from those memories of Orange Crush in a nail-holed bottle, and my teenage orange-juice-float addiction, and an overabundance of sweet ripe cantaloupe on my counters one day this spring. The touch of cream cheese adds just the right amount of tang and creaminess. . . a fresh, velvety creamsicle in liquid form.

This smoothie has now become a much-requested favourite of my teenage son. Maybe some day it will be the taste he remembers with a fond smile . . .

Kitchen Frau Note: Next time you have a nice sweet cantaloupe (because we all know that sometimes we do get those flavourless duds!), quickly squirrel away half of it to cube and freeze, before anyone knows it’s missing. (Just tell them it must have been an awfully small cantaloupe.)  Spread the cubes on a parchment-paper-lined cookie sheet and freeze until firm. Remove the cubes and store them in a heavy duty freezer bag. If you make more than enough you can keep them in the freezer and have them ready to make a cantaloupe creamsicle smoothie whenever the urge strikes, or your family begs you for it.

cantaloupe cubes for freezing for smoothie

I use frozen orange juice, reconstituted with water according to the directions, to make my smoothies, but freshly squeezed orange juice would, of course, be great.

If you need it a bit sweeter, add another drizzle of honey. 

cantaloupe creamsicle smoothies

Cantaloupe Creamsicle Smoothie

  •  3 cups frozen cantaloupe cubes (375 gms/13 oz.)
  • 1½ cups (360ml) orange juice, plus a little more if necessary
  • ¼ cup (65gms) cream cheese (¼ of a 250gm/8oz block)
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Place all ingredients in a blender and whirl until smooth.

cantaloupe creamsicle smoothie

If the mixture is too thick, add a drizzle more orange juice until it blends freely.

Makes 3 to 4 servings (about 4 cups).

 cantaloupe creamsicle smoothiePippa wants some, too!

Guten Appetit!

You might also like:

Nutty Monkey Smoothie

Blood Orange and Elderflower Sodas

Two Rhubarb Cordials

Orange, Grapefruit and  Cardamom Syrup

Watermelon-Lime Ices (with a Tequila Option)

 What are the treats you remember from your childhood?

Posted in Beverages, Fruit, Gluten-free, Vegetarian | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments