I was thinking of something to make to either be my lunches for the week, or to be in the fridge for a light dinner when I get home. With nothing in mind I decided to browse the aisles at a newly opened Loblaws near us and look for inspiration. I knew I wanted it quinoa based and that I had a sweet potato at home, the rest was to be decided. The first thing I spotted were some radishes. I normally don't eat radishes, in fact I can't ever remember specifically wanting to eat them. Today, they jumped out at me, all ruby red and full of promise. I then got some broccoli, green onions and goats cheese. The salad would be dry at this point so I went looking for limes, sun dried tomato pesto and a dip with heat. The salad had it's components. ( I had some pecans at home which I ended up using but at this point I didn't have them in mind).
While the half cup of quinoa cooked, I fried up cubes of sweet potato and added some chopped pecans to toast with them at the end. Maybe about 1/3 cup of pecans, there is no right or wrong amount. I had some in the freezer and when I started to smell the bits of potato catching it immediately made me think of the smell of toasting nuts and how much I love them! So I added them to the dish.
I added these to these to 6 finely sliced radishes (halved first then sliced), 4 green onions cut on the diagonal and 2 crowns of broccoli and stems finely cut. When the quinoa was ready I spooned about 4 or 5 tbsps of sundried tomato pesto into it and stirred it around, the warmth of the quinoa helped it soften and spread throughout it nicely. I used a 1/4 of a lime, it could have taken more but I couldn't be bothered to get it back out of the fridge again! Salt and pepper. About 1/4 cup of goats cheese that I crumbled first. I say crumbled, but it is smooth and therefore doesn't crumble, but I broke it up into pieces as best I could!
Instead of using mayonnaise to give it a creamy binding agent, I found this dip which added a whole bunch of extra depth in the flavours, with salty cheese and spice. I didn't use a lot, I don't like my salads swimming in creaminess, maybe about 1/3 of a cup.
There is such an element of the unknown in this salad, you don't know which flavour you will bite into next. The earthiness of quinoa runs through it, and the subtle spice of the dip. Then you come across bright bits of radish, sweet cubes of potato, crunchy broccoli, smooth and creamy cheese and the beautiful taste of toasted pecans. They all serve to compliment one another really well making it a full flavoured and jovially coloured dish. I bet it will taste even better tomorrow once the flavours have had time to rest together.
