Sep. 12: Quinoa & Corn Salad

Hey, Fancy Lori™! It turns out you can win friends with salad. This one met with Sunshine’s, Dawn’s, Darby’s, and Victor’s approval, and that’s enough for me.

I tried a deli salad at New Seasons recently and fell in love with its unique texture and flavors. I started craving it regularly. Last week I put a pint through “the lab” (I asked for Dawn’s advice and wrote down the ingredients listed on the sign) so I could attempt to make it at home. With some Internet research on possible ingredients for the dressing, I think I’ve gotten it as close to perfect as I can. Here’s my recipe.

Quinoa & Corn Salad with Cumin Dressing

Dressing:

• 1 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• 2 teaspoons cumin
• 4-5 garlic cloves, pressed
• 2 teaspoons sea salt

Salad:

• 3 cups dry quinoa (once cooked, makes approx. 9 cups)
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 2 cups water
• 2 bunches of fresh spinach
• 4 ears fresh sweet corn
• 1 bunch cilantro
• 1 red pepper

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1. Mix olive oil, vinegar, cumin, garlic and salt together in a jar. Shake and let sit to combine flavors.
2. Combine uncooked quinoa with chicken broth and water in a large pan. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 20 minutes. When the quinoa is finished, fluff with a fork. Put in a large bowl to cool slightly.
3. Wash spinach and tear off stems, then blanch (put leaves in a colander in the sink and pour boiling water over them, then immediately pour ice water on them). Drain. Press extra liquid from leaves and chop largest ones in half. Add to quinoa.
4. Cut corn kernels from cobs. Use a small amount of olive oil and sauté corn until just cooked through. Add to quinoa.
5. Finely mince cilantro and add to quinoa.
6. Slice red pepper very thinly and chop into small pieces. Add to quinoa.
7. Stir ingredients, then lightly toss with about two-thirds of the dressing. Add more dressing if needed. Place salad in the refrigerator to chill. As with all salads like this, the longer it sits, the better (within reason!); overnight is ideal.
8. When ready to serve, toss with a bit more dressing.

This makes a very large (“Thatsa Bowl” sized!) salad. Cut the recipe in half if desired.

Some additional thoughts:

• I haven’t tried working with different colored quinoa, but I think it would make the salad much prettier.
• The New Seasons version doesn’t have the red pepper, but I added it for color. The mild flavor of the pepper goes well with the dressing, so I’d definitely do that again. With other colors of quinoa, it might even be nice to use orange and yellow peppers too—just not too many.
• I steamed the spinach and it ended up being too soft and dark by the next day, which is why it looks not-quite-blanched in the photo. I think blanching ought to work much better.
• Nuts? Sounds like it could be tasty; it’d change the texture a lot, and I’m not sure that’d be good. Cheese? Seems goat cheese could work… I need to experiment some more.
• Roasting the corn before cutting it off the cobs would really add a nice smoky flavor to the salad, as well as some more color. Next time.
• Fresh corn (rather than frozen or canned) is the only way to go here… the texture of the corn is one of the most appealing parts of the salad, in my opinion.
• The New Seasons version uses very finely sliced scallions. Although I think they taste fine in the salad, I prefer the red pepper for color.

If you try the recipe out for yourself and have any good suggestions, please share! I had a lot of fun creating this, but as it was my first time working with quinoa, I’m not yet aware of all the ways it can be used. Good luck—