After making soups and soft foods for weeks for Andy, I had a serious longing for something crunchy…and spring made me think of greens and other good garden veggies. A family member served up a wonderful salad yesterday, which I’ll share another time after I make it, but it had carrots, quinoa and chickpeas in it, which inspired my cooking session this morning. When I was at Costco the other day, they served up a quinoa tabouleh that had mung beans in it, which I’ve never cooked with before, and that added a little more inspiration. Here’s the result:
KALE & QUINOA SALAD
- Quinoa, 1/2 cup dried
- Chickpeas, 1/2 cup dried
- Mung beans, 1/4 cup dried
- Carrots, 1-2 good-sized carrots
- Apricots, 6 dried, organic, unsulfured
- Olives, Green Mediterranean, 8-10
- Green onions, 3-4
- Kale, 6-8 leaves
- Romaine, 6-8 leaves
- Red cabbage, 1/8 small head, chopped
- Extra virgin olive oil, 1 TB or less
- Lemon, juice of 1 to 1-1/2
- Salt, sprinkling, to taste
- Szeged hot paprika, sprinkling, to taste
Instructions
- Cook the quinoa, chickpeas and mung beans separately. For 1/2 cup quinoa, I use 1 cup of water and 1/4 tsp. salt, and it takes about 15 minutes. For the chickpeas, I use 1/2 cup chickpeas and 2 cups of water, and it takes about 1-1/2 to 2 hours. For the mung beans, I use 1/4 cup mung beans, 1 cup of water, and it takes about half an hour. You’ll need to keep an eye on these — they should remain firm. These can all be cooked ahead and set aside or refrigerated.
- Wash, cut up and cook the carrots until just tender.
- Wash the kale, Romaine, red cabbage and green onions and chop roughly. Wash and dry, then sprinkle a little olive oil over them and rub in.
- Chop the apricots and olives, and toss into the greens with the cooked and cooled carrots.
- Add the lemon juice, salt and hot paprika to taste and toss again.
- Finally add the cooked and cooled quinoa, chickpeas and mung beans, taste, and adjust seasoning.
The salad is a wonderful blend of textures and flavors with the slightest hint of Middle Eastern sweet and salty from the apricots and olives. A lovely entry to spring.
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