Celebrity Pesto Quinoa Salad

You know how sometimes you pull out all the stops when you make a dish? Well, that happened to me yesterday because I knew I was serving Dr. William Sears and his wife Martha at a brunch. If you don’t know who Dr. Bill is, you either do not have kids under the age of 25 or you have been living under a rock. Dr. Bill literally wrote the book on babies. He called it, wait for it, "The Baby Book" and it has a photo of babies on the cover. He and Martha have written somewhere around 50 books, on kids and health, that have been translated into several languages.

1 cup quinoa

1.5 C water

4 large swiss chard leaves, cut into ribbons

½ teaspoon sea salt

½ teaspoon ground pepper

1/8 C freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 C chopped arugula

1/2 C fresh basil leaves, chopped (a BIG handful, then you chop them)

1 red bell pepper, chopped

16 or so baby carrots, cut into coins (or chop up 2 large carrots)

1 C chopped red onion

1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

½ C Dreamy Pesto Sauce

Knowing that royalty might eat my salad I took a little extra time to make my quinoa fabulous. First, I soaked my quinoa in filtered water for about 15 minutes while I harvested chard, basil, arugula, and bell pepper from my Garden. HighOnHealth.org has a great article on soaking quinoa. And, then went to town chopping and chiffonading (that should be a verb) my veggies and fruit. Yes, bell peppers are technically fruit because the seeds are INSIDE. Strawberries are the only fruit with the seeds on the outside. We’ll save that debate for another day.

Probably the biggest secret is the massaging of the chard to break its fibers down while I prepped the other veggies. And, you’ll want to make this salad a day ahead of time to let the flavors marry. In the morning you can say, “I now pronounce you husband and wife.” Certainly because you‘re gonna a party when you eat the salad.

I like al dente, so I use 1.5 cups water to cook the quinoa. If you want more flavor, use veggie broth or “No Chicken Broth” by Imagine. Oooh! How about wine? Use a white or you will have an odd color grain. Let the quinoa cool by fluffing it with a fork or large spoon many times until you do not see steam rising any more.

Mix the cooled quinoa with all of the ingredients. The salad will take on a light green hue because of the pesto sauce.

Dreamy Pesto Sauce

     I’m embarrassed at how easy this pesto sauce is to make, in fact how easy pretty much ALL pesto sauces are to prepare. Pesto is just the Italian word for “pounded” but it sounds so much more elegant. Something to do with grinding the ingredients with a mortar and pestle. Fortunately for you, we have electronic devices to make that whole process go at light speed. 

4 C fresh TG basil leaves

4 medium cloves of garlic, peeled and minced

¼ C freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 C shelled walnut pieces

1.5 C grapeseed oil

¼ C nutritional yeast flakes

¼ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

then,

5 pitted black olives and a little bit of the brine (1 teaspoon?)

        Take the bushels of basil leaves from your over-productive plants (that's a US quarter for scale) from your Garden and shake off any spiders that may have come along for a ride.  I always seem to bring friends in from the Garden. Then they freak out as I have completely disrupted their fine day outside, ripped their home apart, and transported them to a harsh environment. I feel a country song in the making.

         Layer your ingredients (except for the olives) in the exact same order in your high speed blender.  Basil first and pepper last. You get it. Secure the lid (double check or your walls will have a green splatter effect other people pay a year’s salary to achieve). Push the button for Sauces/Dips.

         You probably questioned your high speed blender's ability to suck the leaves from the top. But, magic! You now see a light green goop inside the blender pitcher. You really could just stop there and have pesto. You’d still see tiny bits of green and light brown together. But, take this one step further.

         Add the olives and brine. Put your cover on the pitcher. Push the Sauces/Dips button, again. Now your sauce is dreamy – no bits visible. The texture completely changed.

Be sure to refrigerate this sauce in the best container that matches its volume. You don’t want the oxygen in the gap between the top of the sauce to the bottom of the lid to be mixing with the sauce. Your forest green will transform quickly to a fatigues green. I never could have served in the army because of their color choices. That, and I am wimpy and scared of dying. I salute all who serve their country and leave the comforts of their home to bring peace to others.

         This sauce is suitable for mixing with hot noodles, spreading on your sandwich, mixing with your salad, or drinking. Wait, not drinking. I meant to type, “drizzling on a roasted portabello.” Yeah, that’s what I meant to type.

Why I Love my BlendTec Blender

     

     I am a Costco junkie. That $50 gets me in the door at least once a month. They know it, too. I am there so often that certain people smile extra big when they see me, like I am a long lost friend who showed up for the free buffet at a wedding.

     So, when BlendTec came a visiting I stood and watched the demonstration. Then, I saw VitaMix come through with the same product (essentially, though I am frustrating their product engineers right now) except for the fact that Vita Mix had a plunger and a rotary dial and BlendTec did not. 

     Did I buy the BlendTec the first time I saw it? Heck no! I had to go home and research the poop out of it. And compare prices on craigslist and amazon.com. I read reviews by supposed real people on the BlendTec and the Vitamix. I talked with my friends who owned one or the other. I investigated in local restaurants and coffee shops to determine WHICH brand they used.

     I came up with this: they are the same machine. And I don't want to have to wash a plunger. Ergo, (I've always wanted to start a sentence with that) I purchased the BlendTec. 

     I have 2 very important tips for you. 1) Be sure the power button is ON - that little button on the back. Whilst cleaning, I turned it off and put away the base. Brought it out a month later because I didn't know how to use the BlendTec in my every day life, and plugged it in. No worky. Did I tell my engineer husband that I broke an appliance that cost the same as a dishwasher? No. I figured I burned the motor trying to blend something to chunky and forgot about that. For another month I debated bringing it in to a repair shop. Once day, by chance, I plugged it in and gave it one final try. Picked it up, looked all around, talked to it like I do my computer sometimes. What's this button? Ta-da! The screen came on and told me how many times I had used it. The heavens parted and I resumed my blending frenzy. 2) Rinse your pitcher right away or food gets stuck on it and you end up using the scratchy side of the sponge and 7 years later the pitcher is no longer totally see-through. Imagine scrubbing the daylights out of a plastic glass for 7 years and you know what I mean.