Quinoa Guacamole Salad

My sister hates avocados.  I know, take a moment and fathom what that must be like.  Yeah, neither can I.  I think they are quite possibly one of the worlds most perfect foods, right up there with spinach and tomatoes.   Guacamole salad is so full of yummy avocadoey guacamole flavor, that sometimes you might feel a little guilty for eating it by the spoonful.   I did, which is why I decided to try adding a bit of quinoa to it.  

This recipe is actually a variation of the guacamole salad recipe I shared a few years ago.  I make it all the time...it's a perfect summery BBQ salad that most people tend to love.  People that are not my sister of course. 

Off topic a bit, but don't you love these little mini sweet peppers that are popping up in stores these days?  I used to be obsessed with snap peas.  Now I'm obsessed with these...they are so fun to snack on and are perfect for this salad because you can get all of the phenomenal pepper colors without having to buy three full peppers.

The basic ingredients are the same from Barefoot Contessa's original recipe: black beans, peppers, tomatoes and avocados.  Somewhere along the way though, I started adding a handful of cilantro to the dressing because cilantro is awesome. 

And of course this time, a cup of cooked quinoa.  I really loved the addition of the quinoa this time, so much that it'll become a permanent part of the recipe.  It adds a a pretty healthy protein packed fill to the salad that still retains all of the original guacamole flavor. 

The original recipe called for "gently folding in the avocados."  You can of course do that and the avocados stay the same size and are separate bites within the salad.  I chose to roughly cut and roughly stir so that the avocado mushed up and the salad became a lot less like salad and a lot more like guacamole. Only caveat is that you obviously have to add the avocados right before serving and the salad definitely does not keep.  That's okay because there are usually aren't any leftovers anyway. 

Guacamole Salad

Adapted from Barefoot Contessa At Home

Ingredients:

1.5 cups quinoa

1 cup water

3 small tomatoes diced

1.5 cups diced red, yellow and/or orange sweet peppers diced

1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained

1/2 cup small diced red onion

2 tablespoons minced jalapeno peppers, seeded (2 peppers)

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated lime zest

Juice of one lime

1/4 cup cilantro

1/4 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 clove garlic, minced 

1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

2 ripe Hass avocados, seeded, peeled, and 1/2-inch diced

Directions:

1. Add quinoa and water to small saucepan and bring to slight boil over medium high heat. Reduce heat to medium low, cover and let cook for  10 minutes.  
2. Remove from heat and allow to sit for additional 10 minutes.  Remove lid, fluff with fork and allow to cool completely
3. Place the tomatoes, pepper, black beans, red onion, jalapeño peppers and quinoa in a large bowl.  
4. In a small food processor, puree cilantro, lime zest,  lime juice, olive oil, salt, black pepper, garlic, and cayenne pepper until dressing is emulsified.  
5. Pour over the vegetables and quinoa and toss well.
6. Just before you're ready to serve the salad, fold the avocados into the salad. Check the seasoning and serve at room temperature.

Game Day Guacamole

When you grow up in Denver, you either love the Broncos or you hate them, but you're rarely indifferent. When the weather starts to cool and the leaves begin thinking about changing colors, the Denver fan, heck any football fan, knows a special time is drawing near...football season.

Football season will forever hold a special place in my heart. It was time spent with my family growing up. It was high school football games where you screamed until you were hoarse. It was homecoming where you got to ride in in floats to buildup the big homecoming game. It was college days where campus energy rose right before the Iowa-Iowa State game, and frat houses were the place to be after Iowa kicked some Cyclone butt, which they did again yesterday. Just in case you hadn't heard.

And with football season, comes football food. Of course, one must start by putting on a handy, dandy team apron. It makes the food taste that much better. For today's season opener get together, I made guacamole, because really, guac is like little bites of heaven on a tortilla chip.

The thing about guac though is that while it's well loved and very popular, it's hard to get people to agree to the perfect version...everyone has an opinion. Should it be smooth or have chunks? Tomatoes or no tomatoes? Cilantro? Lots of garlic or just a little? Spicy or mild? The variations are endless really.

Unfortunately, it's hard to share a recipe since it's really by taste each time. In a nutshell, I started with 3 avocados, split and diced in the skins and then scooped into a bowl.

Add one small tomato, finely diced, one tbsp minced red onion and one half finely diced jalapeno. Throw in two crushed garlic cloves, the juice of one lime, a handful of finely chopped up cilantro, a bit of salt and some pepper. Stir and mash with a fork so that it's creamy, but still retains smaller chunks of avocado.

The most important part of game day guacamole is using that one, completely impractical serving dish---the one that takes up half the kitchen and only comes out a few times a year....on occasions such as opening day.

But in the end, it's worth the space it takes up. Eating guac out of a plain dish might imply that a girl doesn't bleed orange and blue. That'd be a shame.

Bruschetta

Another produce post? Shocking indeed...but check out these heirloom beauties...

Tomatoes, how I love thee. And after seeing a Julie and Julia this past weekend, I've been fixating on a certain scene from the movie that looked a little like this...

Tomatoes, garlic, basil, salt, pepper and olive oil. So simple and yet so perfect. It could rival some of the most gourmet meals if you ask me.

Fruit and Nut Bars

I fell for Larabars a few years ago when they were handing out samples at the Cherry Creek Arts Festival. That's actually saying something because I am not a fan of the nutrition bar aisle at the market.

That being said, loving Larabars was a surprise to me. Granted they are not really touted as meal replacement or nutrition bars, they are more of a snack item. I keep a stash in my desk at work to avoid those vending machine cravings. My only wish has been that they would reduce the size. These are filling little suckers and half a bar does the trick. And each time I evaluate the the ingredient list, I often wonder if I couldn't make my own version of these at home.

One of my fav flavors, banana cookie (or banana bread as they now appear to be called) had exactly three ingredients: almonds, dates and unsweetened bananas. Even the schmancier chocolate line adds only a bit of flavor and cocoa powder. Surely this wasn't rocket science.

I require a bit of green to my bananas in order to eat them straight and giving the banana cookie version a try would be the perfect way to use those ripened bananas I always seem to have. I sliced the bananas fairly thin and put them in a 175 degree oven for three hours. Three bananas yielded almost a cup of dehydrated bananas. Warning: dried bananas without preservatives are not pretty. Then it was food processor time for all three ingredients.

Fruit and Nut Bars

1 c. dates

1 c. dried bananas

2/3 c. almonds

1. Process dates and bananas together to create a small chunk crumb. Remove from food processor and place in bowl

2. Process almonds for 20-30 seconds. Add to bowl with date mixture.

3. Knead with hands until fully combined.

4. Shape or roll out mixture to about 1/2 inch thick. Refrigerate.

5. Cut into desired bars (or smaller snack servings...yay!)

I can't believe I waited so long to give this a try. They tasted just like banana cookie bar even though I chose a smaller almond to fruit ratio. I'm guessing that the bananas could be replaced with dried cherries for the cherry bar version and cashews or pecans would make a fabulous substitute for the almonds. Truly a bar that meets the food experience requirements.