Thursday, July 03, 2008

Quinoa & Red Rice Salad

redricequinoasalad

I found this delightful recipe over at 101 Recipes. It's from the Ottolenghi cookbook - I'd never heard of Ottolenghi, but apparently it's a UK chef and chain of.. restaurants? Take-aways? Whatever it is, it must be lovely. This salad is amazing - I've made it twice already, and my mom has made it for a dinner party, and everyone loved it. The book made it to the top of my wishlist straight away!

You can serve this salad as it is, or as a side dish. I ate it with grilled pork and a simple sauce Béarnaise (no, not homemade!) and it was absolutely delicious.

Quinoa & Red Rice Salad
Serves 4

200 ml quinoa
200 ml red rice
2 yellow onions
olive oil
1 orange (the zest plus the juice)
2 tsp lemon juice
1 garlic clove
3 scallions (spring onions)
10 dried apricots
50 g pistachios
80 g arugula (rocket)
salt, pepper

Rinse the quinoa really well in cold water (or it will taste bitter) and then boil it in salted water for 12-14 minutes. Rinse with cool water, drain, and let it cool completely.

Boil the red rice according to the packet instructions - mine took about 35 minutes, in UNsalted water. (Apparently the salt can make the rice tougher.) Same here, rinse, drain and let it cool.

Slice the yellow onions and fry on medium-low heat in olive oil until golden brown. Place in a bowl and add minced garlic, the zest of the orange, orange juice and lemon juice.

Slice the scallions. Cut the apricots into smaller pieces. Toast the pistachios and chop them coarsely. (Or leave them whole, if you prefer!) Rinse the arugula, and cut into smaller pieces.

Mix the rice and quinoa with the dressing and a tablespoon of olive oil if it seems dry. Add scallions, apricots and arugula and season with salt and pepper to taste. Place on a large plate or in a bowl, and scatter with the pistachios.

Recipe in Swedish:
Quinoasallad med rött ris

8 comments:

glamah16 said...

You mentioned this one. It looks so good and healthy. I have been hearing of this UK chef and chain a lot recently.

Pille said...

I remember that salad from Heidi's blog! And after reading praises on several food blogs, I ordered the book from Amazon myself. Should arrive by this weekend - and I cannot wait!
;)

Dagmar said...

This was really lovely! We both liked it a lot.

Anne said...

Pille, lucky you! :) I hope the rest of the book is as good - you have to tell me, and then I'll just have to order it :)

Anonymous said...

Anne, you are great! I am speaking about your "Match made in heaven". I didn't have a goat's cheese, so I put a mozarella, I didn't have a pine nuts, so I put cashews, I didn't have a mustard vinaigrette, so I put balsamic, plus I added little bit of olive oil and dry oregano. It was really, really delicious! My husband and I were happy! Next time I will buy all the proper ingredients, I am sure, it will be even more tasty. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Anonymous said...

Quinoa and apricots i a delightful combo. I´ve used it several times with spices like curry and garam masala. I think quinoa tastes a lot like peanuts so adding chopped peanuts to enhance that specific flavour works fine for me.

Anonymous said...

I'm Haley, Key Ingredient's Chief Blogger. We would like to feature this recipe on our blog. Please email haleyglasco@gmail.com if interested. Thanks :)

Haley
http://blog.keyingredient.com/

Jeanne said...

Yotam Ottolenghi is my new hero... I have made 2 things of his and both were such a runaway success that I am definitely getting his book. This recipe looks fab too!