Vegan quinoa with November vegetables & spinach pesto

It would be too easy to think of a dish that reflects me. In fact, this vegan quinoa with November vegetables & spinach pesto, reflects all that my way of seeing the kitchen, in front of the mirror, would not reflect. But where’s the harm in changing, in revisiting and reinterpreting yourself, in wanting to be – just sometimes, otherwise bipolarity is around the corner, it’s a moment – other than yourself? Someone said that if nothing ever changed, there would be no butterflies. And I just really, really, really like butterflies.

INGREDIENTS (serves 6)

Quinoa with November vegetables:

• 300 gr of quinoa
• Half a red onion
• 1 leek
• 3 carrots
• 300 gr of frozen peas
• 300 gr of snow peas
• 300 gr of potatoes
• A small romanesco broccoli

Spinach pesto:

• 30 gr of pine nuts
• 200 gr of fresh spinach, blanched for a few seconds
• Two handfuls of basil leaves
• Extra virgin olive oil, salt and black pepper q.s.

MATCHING SOUNDTRACK:
I gotta get the world off my back, Bill Martin & Phil Coulter

METHOD

1. Wash and dry all the vegetables.
2. Put on the stove a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil in a large frying pan, gently fry the onion and leek previously sliced.
3. Add the diced carrot, the peas and the chopped snow peas. Add salt and cook slowly with the lid.
4. Steam the chopped potatoes with broccoli.
5. Now cook the quinoa: rinse the seeds under running water to remove the saponins, put them in a pot and add, in a ratio of 1:2, cold water (essentially, 300 gr of quinoa will take 600 gr of water) so add the salt. Bring it to a boil, put the heat to low and let it simmer for 10 minutes with the lid.
6. Sauté the cooked quinoa with the vegetables.
7. Make the spinach pesto by blending together spinach, basil, pine nuts, salt and olive oil.
8. Grind the potatoes and broccoli with a fork, season with a little oil, salt and pepper and use the mashed vegetables as a base of the dish. Add in the sautéed quinoa and, lastly, the spinach pesto.

If you prefer, instead of a radical chic dish out, you can mix all the vegetables together. Surely in this way it will be much more convenient to take in the office, for a nourishing, light and healthy lunch like few others.

Ph. Sara Cartelli
© The Eat Culture