Leek Soup – Dina Avila, Photographer

I’ve been meaning to make this salad for about a week now. I had all of the ingredients gathered (sort of), and then life took over, I got busy and the week passed. Thank goodness kale is a hearty beast of a vegetable. She held together quite nicely with hardly a wilt while wrapped in plastic and shoved in the vegetable crisper.

Once again, I give Heidi Swanson credit for inspiring yet another recipe. This is how it works: I contemplate making a simple dish for dinner, and my blog, I pick up Super Natural Every Day, let the pages flutter by until something jumps out at me. This week it was her Whole Grain Rice Salad that popped off the page and said hello. Well, I didn’t have about most of the ingredients, so I used Heidi’s recipe as a guide. I poked around my kitchen and grabbed a jar of black quinoa to mix with regular quinoa, kale and cilantro make an appearance, (a combination that I feared may be fateful), dried cherries and ricotta salata. Oh, and pistachio’s for a bit of a crunch.

This was almost another case of too many ingredients in the pot (I was really worried about the kale/cilantro combo) but this salad turned out to be earthy and bright and perfect for this grey and humid summer’s day.

Cheers!

Thanks to Bon Appetit for featuring this post on bonappetit.com!

Black and White Quinoa Salad with a Champagne Vinaigrette Dressing

Inspired by Super Natural Every Day, Heidi Swanson

What you’ll need~

2 cups black and regular quinoa, cooked

1 bunch kale, roughly chopped and steamed

Handful of dried cherries

Handful of shelled pistachios

Handful of cilantro leaves to sprinkle on the finished dish

Handful of crumbled ricotta salata

Pinch or two coarse sea salt

For the dressing~

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 Champagne vinegar

7-10 cilantro leaves

8-10 dried cherries

Pinch of sea salt

Combine all of the dressing ingredients in a jar and shake until blended.

Fold all of the salad ingredients together, save the cheese and cilantro, in a large bowl. Transfer to a serving dish, drizzle with salad dressing, sprinkle with cilantro leaves and a few pinches of coarse sea salt. Serve warm.