Quinoa and Concertos

So tomorrow is the Vancouver Philharmonic Orchestra's first concert of the season. Tonight we had a dress rehearsal for it. We did a run through of everything we're going to play, and we played the trumpet concerto with the trumpet soloist for the first time. It's amazing how the acoustics change when you're in the 25-foot ceilinged chapel of a church versus the church's little side hall. All of a sudden, the out of tune passages become much more apparent...

So that covers the "Concertos" part of the title, and now I will enlighten those lucky individuals reading this about the joys of quinoa. 

I discovered quinoa in the summer when my sister was here visiting. I always knew vaguely about it because I used to work at Whole Foods, which of course, is packed full of natural and organic foods, so quinoa was a big thing there. I had never really tried it, though. Then one of my sister's friend brought this delicious quinoa salad. I've altered the recipe to my particular tastes and now I make big batches of quinoa in various forms with various ingredients about once a week now. Quinoa is hard to explain, because it's not really a grain, and not a vegetable, but technically a seed, I believe. Here is more information.

The quinoa recipe I wish to share is a Greek Quinoa Salad.

What you need for the salad:

1 cup of quinoa

1/4 of a large red onion, diced

1/2 a large red pepper, diced

1/2-2/3 large cucumber, quartered and sliced

1/2 can of chick peas 

approx. a dozen kalamata or black olives, pitted and sliced

feta cheese - crumbled

approx. 8-10 leaves of fresh basil

For the dressing:

juice of half a lemon, squeezed

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp of Dijon mustard

1 large or 2 small cloves garlic, minced or pressed

a pinch of dried herbs such as oregano, basil, thyme, and/or dill

salt and pepper to taste

So for the quinoa, it's made a lot like rice - so bring 2 cups water and 1 cup quinoa to a boil and then simmer on medium-low for about 20 minutes. It should be fragrant and look fluffy when it's ready. It should have also soaked up all the water in the pot. Set the quinoa aside when it's ready and let it cool.

Once cooled, combine the quinoa with the red onion, red pepper, cucumber, chick peas, olives, fresh basil and feta cheese in a large bowl and mix well. 

In a bowl or measuring cup combine all of the dressing ingredients and stir or whisk well. Add dressing to bowl and mix again! Give the salad and the dressing little tastes along the way and add or alter the ingredients to your tastes as you go!

Anyway, that's a sufficiently long post, so I will end it at that!