Cloudy skies. High winds. That’s right, there’s a cold front coming through Dallas. It was 80 degrees today. Tomorrow it will only get up to 62. I know! Bundle up! Make sure to take precautions to make sure your pipes don’t freeze!
HA! Okay. There are a lot of things I don’t like about Texas, but one of the things I DO like is that we don’t have much to fear from the cold fronts.
Today was a Day of Rest. I got a protein shake in, and am planning on going to bed early. In fact, my sheets are in the dryer now, and I’ve got the windows open, so that’s going to be extremely comfortable sleeping.
The recipe I tried today is actually a cold (lukewarm?) grain salad. Have I got a great sense of timing, or what?
Toasted Quinoa (pronouned Keen-Wah), Corn and Avocado Salad
1 ½ cups quinoa
1 Tbsp olive oil
Jalapeno dressing:
2 tsp cumin
3 Tbsp olive oil
½ cup fresh lime juice (I estimated. Squeezed out 1 lime and ½ a leftover lemon)
1 Tbsp finely chopped jalapeno pepper. (I used one pepper)
1 minced garlic clove
1 tsp coarse salt
Salad:
1 cup fresh corn kernels. (I used 1 can of yellow corn, drained and rinsed)
1 cup diced plum tomatoes (about 3 plum tomatoes)
½ cup sliced scallions
1 ripe avocado, halved, pitted, peeled and diced
½ cup chopped fresh cilantro
1- The Quinoa: Rinse it in a fine mesh strainer under cold water for 45 seconds. Shake strainer to remove water. It will look like it's doing weird clumpy things in the strainer. It's okay! That's what's supposed to happen!
2- Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add rinsed quinoa and cook, stirring over medium heat for about 10 minutes. Add 2 cups of water (I did 1 cup water, 1 cup veggie broth) and bring to a boil. Cook, covered, over medium-low heat until water is absorbed, about 20 min. Let stand covered, about 10 min before adding to Big Bowl.
3- Dressing: While the Quinoa is cooking, make the dressing. Put these ingredients in a large bowl: cumin, oil, lime juice, jalapeno, garlic clove, salt. Whisk around.
4- Also add these to the Dressing while you’re STILL waiting for Quinoa: Corn, diced tomatoes, scallions. Throw in anything else you think you might like, too. For example, we have this leftover roasted sweet potato from last night. What the hell are we going to do with 1 roasted sweet potato? I don’t know. But it sounds like it would go well with this mix of ingredients.
In you go! I didn't even heat it up or anything.
5- Add Quinoa and mix it all around. I put the cilantro garnish on top to look pretty for the picture, but after that, I just mixed it all around.
I did break out some leftover Tomato Pumpkin soup, as a nod to the "cold front". This was really filling!
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