arugula – Goboroot.com

One of things that I make sure that I keep well stocked in my pantry is quinoa: red and white to be precise. On lazy weekend mornings, I often fail to plan to have a good loaf of bread available. So, with a well-stocked pantry, I can come up with something else good and hearty; best of all, it’s healthier!

With a few steps into the garden, I created this always perfect, cozy breakfast. Oh, I’m so in awe of these little arugula and spinach leaves that have been doing so much on our plates everyday. Now that they are about to end their season, this dish became a great homage to these little but powerful garden gems. I also used baby beets that had to be thinned. Can’t wait for summer vegetables to come!

If you thought from the photos that we were having a gorgeous sunny morning, ha, I managed to trick you with the artificial light. It was actually so extremely dark and crazily pouring rain outside that I had to turn the fireplace on, LOL!

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Quinoa and Poached Egg Salad

I used what’s growing in my garden, but any salad leaves should work. Feel free to experiment with it. As for the cheese, I had only the goat variety, but would’ve loved to use something stronger, like good quality cheddar. For best results, make sure you toast the sunflower seeds. Don’t skimp on this step because it completes this dish nicely. If you don’t know how to poach eggs, I found a dedicated article here.

Serves 3 to 4

1 cup quinoa (red, white or a mixture of both, like I did in this recipe)

2 cups chicken or vegetable stock

Pinch of salt

2 tablespoons butter

Lots of mushrooms, sliced

2 scallions, roughly chopped

Salt and freshly ground pepper

3 cup mixture of baby spinach, beets and arugula leaves, rinsed and drained well

2/3 cup goat cheese, crumbled

2/3 cup or more sunflower seeds, lightly toasted

Poached eggs; use desired amount

Rinse the quinoa under running water while rubbing it together in a sieve.

Place the quinoa in a small saucepan or pot with the stock and salt, and bring to a boil. Lower the heat, cover the pan and simmer until the stock is no longer visible, for about 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and let stand for 5 minutes.

In the meantime, sauté the mushrooms and scallions with the butter in a small pan over medium high heat until softened. Adjust with salt and pepper.

Combine the quinoa and the mushroom mixture in a large mixing bowl and set aside.

Poach eggs and set aside. When eggs are ready, add the salad leaves, goat cheese and sunflower seeds to the quinoa mixture and stir to combine. In this way, baby greens will wilt nicely but not overly.

Serve the quinoa in individual bowls and top with the poached eggs. Sprinkle with freshly ground pepper.

It is officially the first day of spring! My heart rushes when the sun peaks out through the clouds and birds start twittering in the balmy spring air. Arugula has been abundantly growing in a raised bed that I sowed under cloche at the end of last September, and I can see the young plants now, stretching all their leaves toward the sun as if they were yawning.. Early tulips are also in their prime among snowdrops and crocuses, making the garden vibrant with colour.

On the other hand, I get impatient knowing it is warm enough for weeds to start growing and spreading in my garden. Also, while the daytime temperature feels warmer, the ground is still too wet and heavy to work at all. Normally, I wait to sow seeds until the garden dries out (until mid-April for raised beds and early May for direct sowing in the ground), but this year it seemed to have rained and hailed so much in this area that to my dismay, it might take even longer than usual for the ground to be worked. So instead of waiting, I decided to get a head start and sowed seeds for indoor growing.

There are so many plants I want to start indoors yet so little room inside of our house, so I have to do a race with one kind of vegetables after another, filling a 4 tier shelving unit with grow lights, and controlling the temperature and humidity (when possible). But most importantly, I have to protect the young plants from our four legged grazers during our absence. If you have a windowsill that receives a full day of bright light (about 8 hours), you do not need grow lights. Simply place your seedlings in a bright warm area of your house and grow them until they have a few large leaves and the temperature gets as warm as 15 C outside. I move them out to a small greenhouse or a cold frame outside when the seedlings become strong enough to survive in order to create more room for other seedlings to grow on the shelves.

Following the onion seedlings that I sowed last week, I also sowed various types of lettuce and different kinds of snap peas and snow peas. In the meantime, I made a pasta dish for lunch with a big bowl of freshly harvested arugula. I cooked the pasta in a well-salted, boiling pot of water to al dente, and drizzled good quality extra virgin olive oil on top, then tossed everything with arugula leaves and sliced rosemary ham. To finish, I used a dash of cracked pepper and salt, grated parmesan cheese generously over top and drizzled a dash of the olive oil over it all. I like the simplicity of this dish, which allows you to enjoy the tender, nutty favour of freshly harvested arugula. Toasted pine nuts would’ve made it fancier, but I didn’t have any.

Tag: arugula

Quinoa and Poached Egg Salad

Official Spring Day and Arugula Pasta Dish