Kiwi and Kumara: My Life in New Zealand

Man, it has been a while since I posted a recipe! Sorry about that! I was looking through the photos on my camera and realized that I’m definitely behind on writing about the delicious things we’ve made lately. I will try to be a bit better about that!

In the meantime, today was Wellington Anniversary Day, and so we both had the day off of work. It’s become a bit of a tradition to go for a hike on public holidays, and Laura and I had decided to go to the Orongorongo Valley to walk around there. But despite a promising weather forecast, the blue skies that we woke up to soon turned to grey and sprinkles. Normally that might not deter us from taking a walk– sometimes overcast days are the best days for walks, actually. But this morning I was feeling entirely knackered, so we decided to stay closer to home. Laura went for a bike ride while I slept in, and then I spent some time on my yoga mat.

I keep a green folder on our bookshelf, filled with recipes that I brought with me from the States. One of them is a typed recipe from my friend Karen who I did my yoga teacher training with. It’s a quick and easy recipe for quinoa salad, and one that works in pretty much any season. Normally I make quinoa salad with kumara (yams), but yesterday there were just a handful of tiny, overpriced kumara at the farmers’ market since they’re not in season at the moment.  We found some adorable buttercup squash instead — the first of the season — and we couldn’t resist.

I have to admit though that quinoa and I have a bit of an uneasy relationship. It’s a high protein grain from Bolivia that is super healthy, but because of that, it’s skyrocketed in popularity around the globe over the past few years, meaning that it’s now unaffordable to the Bolivians who have eaten it for centuries. So like fish, I tend to think of it as a once-in-a-while healthy food, instead of a staple healthy food.

That having been said, we had a half package of quinoa left in the cupboard, and we’ve been trying to finish up the items in our pantry. So quinoa salad it was. The quinoa we used in this recipe was a blend of white, red, and black quinoa with amaranth. The squash became quite soft as we were mixing it and virtually melted into the quinoa (since I failed to follow my own instructions of letting it cool first!!), as this photo shows. (It was delicious regardless.)

Quinoa salad with squash, cranberries, and lemon

n.b. This particular recipe was designed for a potluck, so it makes heaps, but you can easily adjust the amounts down to make less!

Recipe: Karen’s Quinoa Salad

Ingredients:

• 8 cups cooked quinoa
• 2 kumara (yams) or a squash of your choice
• 1 cup dried cranberries (preferably without added sugar)
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• juice of 1 lemon
• chopped fresh chives or small green onions
• 1/2 cup (at least!) chopped fresh parsley
• sea salt to taste

Method:

1. Measure the amount of quinoa you will be using, and then rinse thoroughly through a fine mesh strainer. For the amount of quinoa you have, place twice that amount of water into a saucepan with the quinoa. (For 1 cup quinoa, 2 cups water, etc) Bring water to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer on low heat for 15 minutes until the water is mostly absorbed, then turn off the heat and let stand until the water is fully absorbed.
2. Meanwhile, prepare the kumara or squash by cutting into large chunks and roasting in the oven with a drizzle of olive oil, until soft and golden, 10-20 minutes depending on size of the pieces.
3. Place cooked quinoa and yams in a large bowl and allow to chill in the fridge before adding other ingredients.
4. When the quinoa and kumara are cool, add in the remaining ingredients, and mix well.
5. Enjoy!

Another shot of the salad and the beautiful new bowls that we picked up from Cheddar Valley Pottery in Whakatane on our New Years road trip.