Quinoa and spring vegetables salad

This delicate spring vegetable salad starts with an elegant pea purée and simmered black quinoa with umami-rich kombu. To celebrate the best of spring, it tops the salad with green and white asparagus, sugar snap peas and radish flowers that is complemented with a creamy wasabi dressing.

Quinoa and spring vegetables salad Credit: Kitti Gould

• serves

  6

• prep

  20 minutes

• cook

  25 minutes

• difficulty

  Mid

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Ingredients

Pea purée

• 200 g soy milk
• 50 g baby spinach
• 500 g frozen peas, thawed
• 100 g olive oil
• 0.5 g xanthan gum
• salt

Wasabi dressing

• 80 g sour cream
• 100 g buttermilk
• 20 g lemon juice
• 20 g horseradish (grated)
• 15 g wasabi paste
• 4 g pink salt
• 0.5 g xanthan gum

Black quinoa

• 1½ litres vegetable stock
• 500 g black quinoa
• 20 g shredded salted kombu (finely chopped)

Asparagus

• 6 stems white asparagus
• 6 stems green asparagus
• 30 ml olive oil
• salt and black pepper

To serve

• 30 g pea shoots
• 15 sugar snap peas, halved lengthways
• broad bean shoots
• radish flowers
• 2 tbsp (40 ml) olive oil
• 2 tsp (10 ml) lemon juice

Instructions

1. For the pea purée, in a medium saucepan, bring soy milk to the boil over high heat. Add the spinach and frozen peas and cook for 1 minute.
2. Transfer the mixture to a blender and blend until smooth. Add the olive oil, xanthan gum and salt to taste.
3. Pass the pea mixture through a fine sieve, over an ice bath (to cool down quickly and stop oxidisation).
4. For the wasabi dressing, in a medium bowl, combine the sour cream, buttermilk and lemon juice. Add the grated horseradish, wasabi paste, salt and xantham gum. Mix well to combine.
5. For the black quinoa, in a medium saucepan, bring the vegetable stock to the boil. Add the black quinoa and stir through the salted kombu.
6. Simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until the quinoa is tender. Set aside.
7. For the asparagus, heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Sauté the asparagus for 2 minutes, or until just cooked. Season to taste. Remove the asparagus from the pan and cut into 5 cm long pieces.
8. Just before serving, dress the black quinoa with olive oil and lemon juice and mix well.
9. Place a spoon of pea purée on the base of a serving plate. Spoon over the quinoa. Garnish with a mix of white and green asparagus pieces, pea shoots, sugar snap peas, broad bean shoots and radish flowers. Drizzle with wasabi dressing.

 

Photography by Kitti Gould.

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Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.

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