Quinoa Salad with Apple Cider Vinegar

Quinoa is a super versatile food, it's also tasty, healthy, and an ancient grain, meaning it hasn't been tampered with the way some other grains have been.  Two years ago I planted some quinoa seeds in my backyard, but as soon as they sprouted, the bunnies cleared all the sprouts.  I'd like to plant quinoa again, because it has amazing flowers and because I like using it in various ways.

This is a very simple quinoa salad.  It can be adjusted by using various ingredients.  What makes it yummy is the basic salad dressing, which is oil and apple cider vinegar.

To start, cook some quinoa, I usually use one cup, and it makes enough for three meals.  While the quinoa is cooking, heat some butter in a pan.  Wash and cut up a zucchini, and add to the butter.  Wash the kale, tear the leaves into pieces, discard the hard stems, and add to the pan.  Cut up a head of broccoli and add it to the mix.

Cut up a tomato.  I like plum tomatoes for stuff like this, because they aren't as juicy/seedy.

Once the quinoa is done, put it in a bowl, add the veg, season with salt and pepper, mix it all up.  Pour a bit of apple cider vinegar and olive oil or grape seed oil over top, mix it in.  Cut up some feta, and sprinkle over top.  One of the grocery stores I go to sells Macedonian feta, which I prefer to the various Greek fetas.  It's creamier and not as salty, almost like something between goat's cheese and Greek feta.

I've made this salad with peppers, onions, spinach, mushrooms, olives, sunflower seeds.  You can use whatever you have on hand.  A lot of the recipes I come up with are based on ingredients I have or need to use up.  This salad is yummy warm or cold, and perfect for lunches and picnics.

Coleslaw my way

I love cabbage, because it's so versatile, but also so tasty in its many ways.  The crazy thing is that I have never made coleslaw until last week.  I've had coleslaw loads of times, some good some great, and I've finally decided to make some myself.  I was inspired by a coleslaw I had at a Pork Party a few weekends ago at a Slow Food Market.

I used a cone shaped cabbage I picked up at the Slow Food Market:

And peppers I picked up at a hobby farm.  Believe it or not, I paid $2.50 for all those vegetables.  I love this hobby farm, it's not advertised in any way, but I found out about it in early Spring.  The onions were a dollar, and the 4 corns were free.  The rest of the vegetables were 10 cents a piece.

Since I had all the coleslaw to myself, I was having it twice a day for three days in a row.  It was so good that I didn't even get tired of it, and surprisingly it remained crunchy.

It was good enough to eat alone.

I also had it with a pork roast stuffed with prunes and cabbage pierogi.

Pork sausage, of course, and my fave mustard, Polish with horseradish.  I sliced it up for easy dipping.

Here I had it without mustard.

Ingredients:

- cabbage

- carrots

- peppers

- apple cider vinegar

- grape seed oil, or any oil really, I used grape, because it barely has a flavour

- mustard seed powder

- celery seed

- S&P

- a bit of sugar

Chop the cabbage, mix all other ingredients and pour over chopped cabbage.  Mix it all up.  You can eat it right away, but it tastes even better after it stands for a while and the flavours get to mingle.

I didn't measure anything, just taste as you're adding and mixing and adjust to your liking.

I like this so much that I made it again this weekend.