Quinoa & Roasted Root Vegetables

Warm Quinoa Salad with Roasted Root Veggies and Ginger-Scallion Dressing

Adapted from a chow.com recipe. Original found here.

This claims to make 6 to 8 servings, but that must be if you eat only this salad and in a very large portion! I think it would serve 12 people as a side dish! Needless to say, we had leftovers, and it was good the next day served cold. This is really easy to make.

Preheat the oven to 400°F and place the rack in the middle.

For the salad :

• 1 medium sweet potato
• 1 large carrot or 2 small
• 1 medium parsnip
• 1 small turnip
• 1 medium rutabaga
• 1/2 an onion

Peel and chop all of your vegetables into ½ inch (1 cm) cubes.
(Uniformly chopped veggies will cook at the same speed!) Place into a large bowl and toss together with:

• 2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more as needed
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more as needed
• 1 clove of crushed garlic
• parsley to taste (fresh is better, but I didn't have it so a few shakes of the dried)

Cover a baking sheet with non-stick aluminum foil or a silpat and place the veggies on the baking sheet in a single layer. Roast the vegetables, stirring every 5 minutes, until they’re tender and cooked through. This will take about 15 to 20 minutes. In the meantime, cook the quinoa according to package directions.

• 1 1/4 cups quinoa, any color or variety

Man, I love this stuff! Makes clean-up easy! 

Now it’s time to make the dressing!

For the dressing :

• 1 bunch scallions, thinly sliced
• 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons peeled and finely chopped fresh ginger  (or I use the Ginger People Grated Ginger if I don’t have any fresh)
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

Whisk the liquids together in a salad bowl. Then add in the scallions (green onions) and ginger. I reserved some scallions to place on top. Taste the dressing and adjust as necessary.

Time for assembly !

When your quinoa is ready, drain any remaining liquid from it through a fine-mesh strainer (Mine never has left over liquid, but this is a step they suggest. ???) Add it to the bowl with the dressing. Add the roasted vegetables and toss to combine. Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed. Serve immediately or at room temperature. Like I said, it was good cold, too.

Sweet Carrot Slaw

This salad was so yummy! I need to share the recipe. The original recipe is found on Serious Eats. I made a few changes, and I really want to record the recipe. I actually intended to make the original, but I used what I had on hand. 

For the dressing you need:

• 2 tbsp. Olive Oil
• 1 tsp. red wine vinegar
• The zest and juice of 1 small lemon
• 2-3 oz. orange juice
• 2 tbsp. honey
• 1 tbsp. sugar 
• 1/2 tsp. salt (or to taste)
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• Fresh ground pepper to taste

Other ingredients:

• 1 (10 oz.) bag Sweet Carrot Slaw*
• 3 scallions (green onion), finely chopped
• 1/2 c. Craisins
• 1/4 c. toasted almonds

Whisk together the dressing in the salad bowl. Add the Sweet Carrot Slaw & scallions and toss. Cover and let set refrigerated for an hour. Toss in Crasins and toasted almonds and serve.

*Green Giant Sweet Carrot Slaw is shredded
carrot, broccoli, and red cabbage.

Fusion Cuisine

I do not generally like chicken salad. 

Really, I kind of cringe at the thought of it. Maybe it's because there is always some nasty, mayo-coated surprise inside that I don't like or can't identify. But when I saw this recipe for Korean Chicken Salad, I decided to give it a try.

I love the look and feel of the blog, Beyond Kimchee. I like that the author, Holly, gives step-by-step instructions with pictures. That's pure gold!


OK. So I ran into a little trouble while making this. So I had to make some changes, but it was still really good. I may try it again and try to follow the recipe as is.


The chicken poached beautifully, as Holly promised. I had to peel the cucumber because my husband will not eat the skin of any veggie or fruit. I used my grapefruit spoon to dig out the seeds.

My Grapefruit Spoon has Teeth.

I was having great fun chopping away with my new Kiwi knife that I picked up at the Wok Shop.

Kiwi Knife

Now, I had my onion, chicken and cucumber nicely chopped. And the cucumber had been salted and drained, per instructions. It looked great. (Sorry no pic. I was too excited and hungry....)

Time to make the dressing.

This is where I started to run into trouble. I know: You're supposed to follow directions, right? Well, I think my sesame seeds had seen better days (i.e. I think they were rancid.) Also, I didn't have any Korean mustard so I made a substitution with regular dry mustard. I don't really know if that made a difference. Well, my dressing was YUCKY!  I was hungry so I had to regroup... So, I went to the fridge.....

OH!  I had some left over vinaigrette* from when I made an Onion Tarte Tatin (Yes, it was delish! I should blog on that next!) 

I grabbed it and tossed it in. Not bad! In fact, it was pretty darn good. It was even better the next day.

We served it on beds of crisp lettuce leaves. 

*Vinaigrette

Whisk together:

1/2 c. Balsamic Vinegar

1/4 c. Extra-Virgin Olive Oil

1/4 c. Light Brown Sugar (packed)

Salt and Fresh ground pepper, to taste

Now, I had used this to dip the onions in before placing in my onion tart, so it had a kind of onion-y flavor. I don't think it matters much since you have onions in your chicken salad. Also, you should add a little at a time until you 'dress' your salad as you like it. There may be too much. 

Chicken Salad on Day 2

Now, I have to plan a trip to the Asian grocery store to pick up some Korean mustard powder & some new sesame seeds.