After a weekend of too many heavy meals, and possibly an unauthorized visit to Shake Shack (don’t tell my kids), a vegetarian meal can go a long way toward regaining one’s nutritional equilibrium. I guarantee that you will be completely full after eating this meal. The quinoa salad is very substantial, and the butter-roasted radishes have a mellow flavor that is very appealing – almost like a slightly-spicy potato.
The quinoa salad comes from Gwyneth Paltrow’s It’s All Good cookbook, and the radishes are from Country Life magazine. The yellow squash carpaccio is a variation on the zucchini carpaccio served at Amaranth in New York, and the carrots with dill are just something we’ve always made. In my family, when in doubt about how to season something, we add dill or caraway seed, and that’s what I’ve done here, with good results.
Serves: 4
Prep time: 30 minutes
Ingredients
- ½ pound radishes, washed and trimmed (cut radishes in half if they are large)
- ½ Cup fresh parsley, chopped
- 1 Tablespoon butter
- Olive oil
- Sea salt to taste
Directions
- Place radishes, cut side down, on a baking dish and drizzle with olive oil and sea salt. Roast in a moderate oven for 20 minutes.
- Once cooked, pour melted butter over them, add a squeeze of lemon and scatter with the chopped parsley. Serve with a buttered, toasted baguette.
Serves: 4
Prep time: 20 minutes
Ingredients
- Large bunch of carrots, peeled and 1.2 inch green stem left on
- 1 Tablespoon butter
- ¼ Cup fresh dill chopped
Directions
- Boil carrots whole until tender – ten to twelve minutes. Drain. Top with butter and dill and serve.
Image credit: Tori Avey
Yellow Squash or Zucchini Carpaccio
Serves: 4
Prep time: 20 minutes
Ingredients
- 4 small zucchini or yellow squash
- ½ cup loosely packed fresh mint leaves
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 2 Teaspoons lemon juice
- ½ Teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ cup pine nuts, roasted
- 6 ounces parmigiano-reggiano cheese, shaved
Directions
- Using a mandolin, cut squash into paper thin slices.
- Arrange slices to slightly overlap on plate.
- Whisk together lemon juice and olive oil and sprinkle over squash.
- Add sea salt, pepper and pine nuts to taste.
- Shave cheese and sprinkle over squash, adding shredded mint last.
- Serve.
Serves: 4
Prep time: 30 minutes
Ingredients
- ¼ Cup olive oil
- 2 Garlic cloves, minced
- 2 Teaspoons thyme, finely chopped
- 1 Pound cremini mushrooms, sliced
- Sea salt
- 2 Cups cooked quinoa
- 2 Large handfuls of arugula, roughly chopped
- Freshly ground black pepper
Directions
- Heat olive oil in large skillet on high heat.
- Add garlic and thyme and cook about 30 seconds.
- Add mushrooms, and a pinch of salt and cook, stirring occasionally until they softened.
- Transfer the mushroom mixture to a large mixing bowl and add quinoa and arugula to combine.
- Season to taste.
To cook quinoa:
Ingredients
- Makes 3 cups
- 1 Cup quinoa
- 1 3/4 cup water
- Sea salt
- Rinse quinoa thoroughly in a fine-mesh strainer to remove natural coating (which tastes like soap!)
Directions
- Place in a pot set over high heat with water and pinch of salt.
- Bring to a boil, lower heat, cover pot and cook until liquid is absorbed, 12-15 minutes.
- Turn heat off, place a dry paper towel between pot and lid and allow quinoa to sit for five minutes before giving is a fluff with a fork.
