Beet, Snow Pea, Feta & Olive Quinoa Salad

A few summers ago, we moved into our cabin in the woods. We had a lot of small dinner parties to show off our new pad, and Greek salad was the main course for nearly every party. Embarrassingly lazy, I know, but oh so good.

This year, my improvised quinoa salads are turning out to be a big hit with dear husband and likely to show up at a few dinner parties. Our main course, fish, sat sadly neglected on our plates while we devoured this feast of flavors.

The big idea: To use a decorating analogy, think of the vegetables as the couch and chairs and quinoa as a side table. You'd miss the side table if it wasn't there, but it doesn't take center stage. To rip off from Tama Adler's fabulous book, An Everlasting Meal, herbs are like "lighting a room." The nicoise olives are like the accent pillows--the color and taste pop.

Ingredients:

Quinoa

Golden Beets

Snow Peas

Feta

Nicoise olives

Scallions/Green onions

Olive oil

Vinegar(champagne)

Basil (loads)

Parsley (loads)

Salt

Pepper

Preparation/Ease:

Beets: Baking, peeling and chopping the beets the night before made throwing this salad together much easier. I learned from the humble Annie Somerville in her Tassajara Dragon Greens cooking workshop last summer that she prefers golden beets to red beets because they don't stain the other ingredients.

Quinoa: I had cooked quinoa on hand.

Snow peas: Deveined and boiled.

Seasonality and Creativity:

Organic snow peas were bountiful at the farmer's market. Last month, I used roasted asparagus without the beets or olives. Delish!

I cleaned out the fridge and found nicoise olives hiding in the back. A nice extra.

I'm favoring green onions in these salads, but shallots would work just as well.

I like to experiment with vinegar. I used champagne (Annie uses champagne vinegar quite a bit), but just as easily could have used golden balsamic or sherry vinegar to mix it up. Red vinegar might be too strong.

Herbs: Eric Gower's, The Breakaway Cook, taught me that one tiny teaspoon or tablespoon for herbs is ridiculous. I've stopped measuring and use herbs like another vegetable. Apply liberally.

Feta: I used a small portion. Yummy.

Quantities:

I didn't measure anything. Trust yourself.

Questions:

Any advice on cooking beets? I was taught to cut off the root, leave the tail, cover half of the beet with water and bake (350 degrees) Afterward, cook and slip off the skins. But the tops are not cooking. This time, I cut off the cooked portion, immersed the uncooked beets in water, and put them back in the oven.