Here’s a delicious hearty-yet-light dish perfect for these warming days of May sunshine. Simple to make yet nutritious and complex in its herby glory, I bet you can have it on the table in less than 30 minutes.
This recipe features three of this week’s offerings, so hurry on over to the farmers’ markets to pick up your fixings. It can be served warm or chilled, as a side or main dish. The very best part about this recipe is that you can easily add your own variations: more herbs, goat cheese, garbanzo beans (if I remember to soak and cook them before), sausage . . . The list is (nearly) infinite.
Here’s how I do it:
(see recipe at the end for detailed directions)
Cook your quinoa.
Roast, skin, and chop your hazelnuts. Roasting isn’t necessary for almonds, walnuts, or whatever other nut strikes your fancy, but it WAY ups the hazelnut flavor (which is my preferred nut for this dish).
While quinoa is cooking and nuts are roasting, chop herbs and mix your dressing. I like to slice my tat soi in half lengthwise to make it a bit more manageable.
Mix it all together. Let sit for just a couple minutes so the tat soi wilts from the heat of the quinoa.
Enjoy!
Ingredients
Fava Beans
- 2 pounds fava beans, in pod
- 1 medium onion
Arugula
- 1/2 cup walnuts
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/4 pound arugula
- 1/4 cup olive oil
Polenta
- 6 cups water, salted
- 1 3/4 cups polenta meal
Instructions
Fava Beans
- Bring a pot of water to a boil.
- Blanch fava beans in boiling water until skins just begin to split, just a few minutes.
- Drain off water.
- When cool enough to handle, pop each bean from its skin.
- When polenta is almost cooked, slice onion thinly and cook over medium heat in olive oil until lightly caramelized.
- Add fava beans to onions and cook to heat through.
- Salt and pepper to taste.
Arugula
- Blend walnuts, garlic, arugula, and olive oil in food processor. Salt and pepper to taste.
Polenta
- Bring 6 cups salted water to a boil.
- Add polenta meal. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook 20 minutes, stirring frequently.
- Stir arugula mixture into polenta. Cook until desired viscosity.
- Makes 4 - 6 servings.
This recipe was adapted from a similar recipe at Simply Quinoa.