Sprout & Pea

Ever since I made pis­ta­chio roasted aspara­gus, I’ve been crav­ing that slightly sweet, savory and uniquely tex­tured com­bi­na­tion. I’ve eaten it on its own, and placed it over a tor­tilla and topped it with a fried egg, so this week­end I thought — why not mix it into one of my favorite grains — quinoa. So, Sat­ur­day night I did just that. I wanted to use red quinoa as black quinoa tends to be a bit dryer, but alas my local mar­ket was out of both the red and white vari­eties, so black quinoa it was! I knew right away that the slightly crunchy aspara­gus com­bined with the very grainy black quinoa would be a bit com­pet­i­tive in tex­ture, but I made it any­way and when I took my first bite, I real­ized that I was in fact cor­rect. I added a bit of lemon just for fun and mirac­u­lously this seemed to solve the prob­lem. That bit of mois­ture and slight tang really brought this whole dish together and after I ate the whole bowl, I was left crav­ing more. Here’s how to make it…

1 bunch of aspara­gus
1 cup crushed pis­ta­chios
1 cup red, white or black quinoa
1 1/​2 cups veg­etable broth
2 tbsp extra vir­gin olive oil
Salt and pep­per to taste
Juice of 1 lemon

In a small pot, com­bine quinoa and veg­etable broth, bring to boil and then let sim­mer with lid half on for about 15 min­utes or until all liq­uid is absorbed. While quinoa is cook­ing, chop up aspara­gus into small pieces (1 inch or smaller) and com­bine in a pyrex with pis­ta­chios and olive oil. Mix together and place in oven at 475 degrees for about 6 min­utes. Move to broiler for a few min­utes or until aspara­gus and pis­ta­chios start to brown a bit (care­ful not to burn). When quinoa is fin­ished, com­bine with aspara­gus and pis­ta­chios. This should make 2 bowls. Squeeze a lit­tle less than half a lemon into each bow and mix. Sea­son with salt and pep­per to taste.