QOTW and a quinoa pomegranate salad recipe

[Guest guest]

My favorite gadgets: gotta agree with a big sharp knife, I also have

a little " dish " with teeth in the bowl and the lid, for mashing

garlic. Use a whisk for " sifting " dry ingredients together as well as

wet. I love the stick blender, but have had trouble keeping one

working (any one got one that's lasted a long time? What brand is it,

please?). I love my silicone mats and silicone pastry brushes -

nothing sticks and I never lose bristles anymore. Pump-able oil

sprayer. I use a chopstick for leveling dry measures. I also like my

potato ricer, cookie scoops in various sizes for making cookies,

muffins, drop biscuits. I also really like having a salad spinner -

after the greens are washed and dried, I roll them up in a kitchen

towel and seal in an airtight plastic container. My twin sister has

the Oxo one, and she does use the bowl as her salad bowl. It's also

lots easier to use than mine. They stay fresh quite some time that

way. Bench knife for making yeast rolls, cleaning up the counter

after any breads. I have a set of dollar-store ice cube trays for all

sorts of non-ice things: herb butters, finely chopped onions,

spaghetti sauce - I freeze them in the ice cube trays, then pop the

cubes out and put them in containers or baggies, and it's easy to pull

out just what I need, and they don't take forever to thaw. Oh, and my

french fry cutter! I'd love to get another of those nut grinder jars

you used to see everywhere - it's ajar with a lid that has a grinder

blade in it - you set the nuts in the top and rotate the handle.

 

I can live without the apple peeler/corer/slicer Pampered Chef thing

that looked so cool at the show, but really only worked well with very

firm unbruised apples. I HATE those chopper jars where the blade

drops down on the food when you push the top - they've never worked

well, or else you had to punch the top really hard. Easier to just

chop with the knife. Can't think of anything else at the moment,as

I've gotten rid of lots of things so they're not in the kitchen

mocking me.

 

Anyway, the recipe:

 

I made this with some of my bounty of poms a couple of weeks ago. Very

tasty!

 

Quinoa Pom Salad

 

Cook 1 cups quinoa in 2 cups broth for 15 minutes, until tender and

broth is absorbed (if you haven't made quinoa before, be sure to rinse

very well first, to wash off the saponins that can make it bitter).

 

Mix into the cooked quinoa:

 

1 cup cooked peas,

1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese,

1/2 of a red onion, diced fine,

1/2 red bell pepper, chopped,

1/3 cup mixed chopped basil, cilantro & parsley,

2 tbsp minced fresh tarragon,

1/2 cup pomegranate seeds

 

Whisk together:

1/4 cup pomegranate juice

1 tbsp orange juice concentrate

1 tbsp white wine vinegar

2 tsp lemon juice

1 tbsp olive oil

salt & pepper to taste

 

Toss with the quinoa mixture.

 

from Pomegranates by Ann Kleinberg