A Fluffy Quinoa Easter

To those who celebrate: Happy Easter! And to those who don’t: Happy Sunday!

Though I’m not feeling very religious these days, Easter Sunday is like a mini reunion for my family. Everyone gathers at my parent’s house where we break bread, share stories and reminisce.

Holiday gatherings like this are always a great excuse for me to get in the kitchen and get my cook on.

As I mentioned in my previous post, a few weeks ago Kerry and I met for dinner at one of our favorite vegan haunts: Peacefood Cafe on the Upper West Side. She recommended I try the Fluffy Quinoa Salad and it was love at first bite. Seriously — if you live in NYC please visit Peacefood. You will thank me. 

Since that fateful day I scoured the internet for a recipe, but after no luck, I decided to take a crack at the salad from menu listing/memory. Here is what the Peacefood website had to offer:

fluffy quinoa

beans, baby greens & sprouts of the day,  

avocado, sweet peppers, corn & onions  

tossed with creamy lime mustard vinaigrette

In a big salad bowl I tossed:
- a box of spring mix lettuce
- 3/4 cup of quinoa (pre-cooked last night)
- 3/4 cup of garbanzo beans (I debated using black beans, but garbanzo ended up being a tasty choice. I can’t remember what they used at Peacefood)
- 3/4 cup of corn
- one half of a red pepper thinly sliced
- ditto with a green pepper
- a few stalks of green onion chopped up (probably any type of onion would work great — I am just such a sucker for green onions)
- one ripe avocado chopped into little squares

Isn’t she purty?

It turned out just as fluffy and delicious as I remember! While the salad had some great textures going on, the best part of my at-home version was definitely the Lime-Mustard Dressing. After searching the web, I whisked together:

- 2 tbsp yogurt (I used regular because that’s what we had, but in the future would prefer to use a soy version)
- 2 tsp dijon mustard
- 2 tbsp fresh lime juice

- 1 tbsp freshly chopped cilantro
- 1/4 tsp of both sugar and salt

Shake it up, baby

This dressing was sweet, tangy and light; and the perfect complement to the plate o’ veggies! 

More dressing, please!

The salad ended up getting quite a few compliments — I am definitely not the only veggie lover in the fam. Next time, I plan on doubling the dressing as we had just enough. I also got requests for more quinoa, so I will probably add a half a cup of that as well.

After dinner I got to satisfy my sweet tooth:

Tie-Dye Cupcakes by Erin

Chocolate Cheesecake by Marc

Along with this, lots of easter bunny candy was consumed.

Although it was a day full of delicious eats, the best part of Easter was getting to laugh and catch up the family — it’s rare for us all to be in one place these days and I definitely don’t take it for granted.

Meg, Erin, Mum, Gillian (Dad not pictured)

Your turn: Have you ever tried to recreate an unforgettable restaurant meal? How did it turn out?  

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