Ali Cooks: Pea & Carrot Quinoa Salad



I got to COOK on Sunday!  I feel like that hasn't happened in over a month!  (...which might just be true...)  Boy was it wonderful to let go of everything and cook food.  The funny thing was that I was multi-tasking and eating food while I was cooking food, but whatever.  See, the food being cooked was for the first-year SAHE cohort's orientation on Monday.  I decided to cook on Sunday because I figured the quinoa salad I whipped up would do well to sit and marinade overnight.  However, I didn't account for the fact that the sauce would evaporate a bit, and halving the recipe (which is in its halved version below) might affect the potency a bit.  With that in mind, I probably would have preferred the salad being served warm, but oh well--free food made for gracious people made for a good time!

And speaking of 'free,' I really did get the carrots for free!  Yep, those good ol' Kroger digital coupons have been treating me right--free carrots, chocolate chips, and two boxes of cereal when I went grocery shopping last Saturday!  Score for me!

All in all, my advice in this post is to experiment with the below recipe (I didn't quite tweak it as I would have liked...), experiment with quinoa (because when it's made right, it's DELICIOUS), and look for every excuse you can to cook/bake/enjoy the leisure aspects of life that you most enjoy.

And that, fine readers, is all of the philosophy I can offer at almost 11pm on a Wednesday night.

Cheers!

Pea & Carrot Quinoa Salad

*adapted from ghost13honeyandmilk.blogspot.com

~3/4 cup quinoa
  1 3/4 cups water
1/2 tbs oil  1/4 tsp salt
 1 cup  frozen peas 
 1 tbs dried green onion (or fresh!)

1 medium carrot, chopped (or a good-sized handful of chopped baby carrots)
1 tbs vinegar 1 tbs balsamic vinegar
  1 tbs olive oil
 1/2 tsp honey
 1/2 tbs Old Bay seasoning
 Salt to taste
Pepper to taste

    Add quinoa to a saucepan with the water, oil, and salt.
    Bring to a boil over medium heat.  Then reduce to a low heat and let simmer until all the liquid is absorbed.
 
Add the peas and finely chopped carrots to a small saucepan to cook until the carrots are tender.  Drain and cool the peas and carrots under cold running water.
    Combine the quinoa, peas, green onions, and carrots.
     Combine the vinegars and olive oil, mixing everything together.  
  Add salt and pepper to taste and enjoy!