I went in a similar direction as Becky, making a quinoa oriented salad. Julie and I thought up four different styles: Southwestern (chorizo, corn, black beans, red bell peppers, garlic), Italian (spinach, red bell pepper, bacon, parmesan), Indian (mushroom, cashew, raisins, mint, ginger, and garlic), and Thanksgiving (Italian sausage, mushrooms, craisins, and thyme). While the Southwestern had the most potential, it didn't work well as a salad because the elements were too separate from each other... perhaps a little bit of sauce would have tied everything together. In any event, we had a lot of fun trying four different quinoa salads with so many ingredients. Only rarely have I appreciated having such a large cutting board before:
Ultimately, I chose the Thanksgiving themed salad as my submissions for MDSBWFC: Quinoa. Recipe follows picture.
Thanksgiving Quinoa Salad
12 oz dry quinoa
1 1/4 pounds sweet Italian sausage
1/2 pounds baby bella mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup craisins
2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh thyme
Cook quinoa. Chop sausage and fry it, draining fat. Fry mushrooms until nicely seared. Toast craisins. Combine sausage, mushrooms, craisins, and thyme and cook for a couple minutes. Stir sausage mixture into quinoa. To serve, line a small glass with waxed paper, fill with quinoa salad, and invert.
Did toasting the craisins make a big difference? I thought the southwestern one sounded delicious, too, as I was reading through your possibilities, so it's interesting that it didn't turn out that great.
ReplyDeleteToasting craisins doesn't make a difference unless you do it enough that they start caramelizing (which I didn't do). I always toast nuts, and it just seemed like a natural thing to do.
ReplyDeleteWe have a leftover box of quinoa, and I might use it to make the Southwestern one better.