Quinoa, Fruit & Nut Salad

Nana and I were quite intrigued by this recipe since neither of us had cooked (or eaten....) quinoa before.  Ok, technically we weren't even sure how to pronounce it either.  Before I make us sound too "provincial", let me add that we not only scored a huge bag of this intriguing ingredient at Costco ~ but Nana also found a lovely "red" version at our local Wegman's.  Trying both was quite an adventure.  The results ?  Believe it or not, the jury is still out.  I don't think Nana will consider this a repeat but I may give it a try with pork tenderloin this summer.



Per Tricia:

The recipe is very straight forward. 

As usual, Dorie provided " play by play"

instructions which were helpful.

                    In fact the only question I had during the whole process

was how much lemon juice I should subsititute

 for the "juice of one lemon".  Thankfully we have

 the internet now to allow us to "google"

 such tidbits (as well as to teach us how to pronounce quinoa)

but I winged it and figured the salad would be forgiving. 

The curious thing about this salad was that

 when I tried Nana's version, I was really a bit

 underwhelmed (no offense Nana). 

Didn't officially dislike the dish but was not sure that

 I would select this as a side dish in lieu of couscous, rice or pasta.

I almost didn't even make my own version,

 but since I had all the ingredients ready to go I

 thought I would give it a try with the white quinoa. 

This time I definitely appreciated the flavors

and textures much more.  All I could think about

was how lovely this would be with grilled pork tenderloin. 

 Then I started wondering why I didn't have

 this reaction to  Nana's version.

I still had some in the fridge and literally took it out

 and was doing side by side nibbles.  I felt certain

 that Nana must have left out ginger or such but when I

retested it....it was clear she did not.  They tasted pretty

much alike but the white was a bit fuller in

texture...a little bit more like a couscous size than

 the red turned out to be.  My kids had tried small spoons

of Nana's but felt they had done enough quinoa exploring

 for a while.  The hubby liked the whole salad presentation

 with yogurt and agreed that it would be a nice side

 dish for the warmer months.  Since it is currently SNOWING

here (I wish that was an April's Fool joke) we can't

wait for that warmer weather !

Per Nana:

Nana says : "if you can't say something nice,

you shouldn't say anything"...but I will anyway.

When I first read the recipe, I thought it would be very exotic.

I had never heard of quinoa before and in the Wegman's

circular for this week, there it was.  Since they were

 advertising "red" quinoa I thought this might

 add a nice color to everything else.

I used a medley of dried "craisins", raisins and apricots. 

 The nuts were a combination of walnuts,

pecans and sunflower seeds.

The cooked quinoa had a taste very similar to kasha,

but as you add the remaining ingredients, as well

as the viniagrette, it takes on a completely different flavor.

I served the salad on top of greens with a dab of Greek

yogurt, and as good as it looked...I did not care for the dish.

It was certainly worth trying, and that is what

"French Fridays with Dorie" is all about.