Written by: Samhita Shirsat
Saturdays are for Salad Lovers!
Hi everyone! My name is Samhita Shirsat, I’m a rising senior at Brookfield High school, and I am a current intern at Ann’s Place. I’m honored to be writing about some of my experiences cooking various healthy recipes as part of a new blog series for Ann’s Place. In this series, I will be cooking and reviewing some recipes I have researched that are both nutritious and hopefully delicious for those affected by cancer. This way, you all can decide if it might be something you would like to recreate on your own!
For my first week, I thought I might start with a meal that was able to combine a lot of amazing and nutrient filled vegetables together—a salad. As I was researching possible options to recreate, I came across this Citrus Quinoa Avocado Salad from the American Institute of Cancer Research and I was immediately intrigued. I love everything avocado related, so I was really interested in trying this one out! *As a side note, for everyone following this blog, feel free to change, add, or remove any ingredients according to specific dietary needs and guidelines *
My First Step in this process was : Buying My Ingredients
As I thought about making this recipe, I considered different options for where I could get my ingredients. Although for some ingredients (quinoa, spices, cheese), I had to visit a local supermarket, for most vegetables, I was able to get them at an amazing farmer’s market in Bethel, CT. The address is 67 Stony Hill Road, in case any of you would like to visit.
I’ve included some pictures I took at the market. There was such a great variety of produce, and most were locally grown!
There was even a garden you could visit to see produce growing.
Overall, this experience was very interesting for me. I normally don’t shop at farmer’s markets, but everyone was extremely friendly and helpful! I highly recommend it as an option to get your produce, because you can know where your food was grown.
Step 2 in my process was: Gathering my Ingredients
The ingredients:
1/2 cup cucumber, diced
1 cup cherry tomatoes, cut in half
2 small cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup red onion, chopped
1 bunch cilantro
2 cups spinach, thinly sliced
1 15.5 oz can no salt added garbanzo beans (drained and rinsed)
1 cup cooked and cooled quinoa
2 medium avocados, diced
For the dressing:
Juice of 2 lemons
Zest of 1 lemon
2 tsp. Dijon mustard
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. honey
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
Dash of cayenne pepper (optional)
Salt and pepper, to taste
As I began to collect these ingredients, I made a couple changes to the original recipe based on some of my own personal tastes and preferences. I added some radishes for a different vegetable, I swapped out the red onion for a white onion, and I thought that lime would personally taste better on the salad than lemon. Feel free to make any of these changes to your salad as well or stick to the original recipe if you would prefer their original ingredients!
Once I decided what I wanted in the salad, I gathered everything on my counter, so that I could begin preparing the recipe.
I just love how colorful all the ingredients looked before I started making the salad!
Step 3: Cook my quinoa
Confession time everyone: I have never actually made quinoa before. Because of this, I had to enlist the help of my mom (resident chef) in order to do it right.
My mom recommended that to cook quinoa, I should start by rinsing it in water for approximately 30 seconds, and then draining the water.
The next step was beginning to cook the quinoa, in boiling water for around 10 minutes.
After this, we let the quinoa cool down for 10 minutes before assembling the salad, so that it wasn’t too hot when it went in.
All in all, this was an easier-than-expected process for me, and now I’m glad I have learned another cooking skill I can add to my collection :)
Step 4: Chopping up my vegetables
As I was waiting for the quinoa to cool down, I began to work on my other ingredients, mainly cutting up my veggies to put in the salad. I don’t know about you all, but for me, cutting onions always leaves me in tears. So, the onion I used in the recipe, I left in the fridge overnight so that it didn’t cause too many tears...and it worked. Just a quick tip in case it could make your cooking experience easier!
Also, cutting with a sharp knife was important for me to be able to cut the vegetables without fear of the knife slipping. It would be important to be careful with the type of knife you choose, so it won’t cause any problems while you are cutting.
Step 5: Putting it all together
Ok, here comes the fun part for me. Once I finished cutting up my vegetables, and the quinoa was all cooled down, I got to put the salad together! I got to mix all my delicious and colorful ingredients together, as well as mix together the amazing dressing.
Step 6: Finished Product
Here’s what our final salad looked like, and I was so excited because it looked amazing! There was such a diversity in color, vegetables, and food groups too. I was so proud of myself at the end of this experience, because I was able to create something with a good nutritional content, that I was excited about eating.
I also have the nutrition information of the salad from the American Institute of Cancer Research to the right.
I was a very happy chef and taster!
Final Thoughts
Overall, this salad was amazing. I truly thought the tomatoes we purchased at the farmer’s market added a great level of freshness and flavor to it. The avocado and lime in the dressing worked great together, and I found myself loving the quinoa for texture. Personally, I made a little more dressing than the recipe suggested (by adding one more teaspoon of olive oil and honey), because I wanted more of the flavor to come through in the salad, but of course it is up to personal taste. I’m so glad that I was able to share this first recipe with each one of you, and I’m looking forward to creating more in the future!
