Beetroot quinoa with feta and tomatoes
I can still remember the very first time I came upon Bea’s blog La Tartine Gourmande. I was awestruck to say the least. Those gorgeous airy photographs! Delicate, flowery and with a clear style. I was hooked. We’re literally talking years ago. It must have been 5 years ago, I think. I honestly don’t know. Do you know or remember that very first moment you saw a food blog and thought, wow, maybe that is something I should be doing too?
Why do people decide to start a food blog? To begin with there should be a clear interest in food, otherwise; what is the point but there are tens of thousands of people out there that have a strong love for food, but absolutely no inclination to start a food blog. Mine is not even that old. With a mere 3 years it’s a medium aged blog. A lot don’t survive past a year, a few make it to more then 5. But what is it, that makes you start a blog? Most of the people reading my blog are probably bloggers themselves and a lot of them I follow too. And I love it. I love to follow all your blogs (if only there was more time!) and I love to write in my own blog too.
There is nothing more satisfying for me then to have a clear idea on what I want to make, shoot it and then write about it. Let’s face it; a food blog is not only about food. That would probably make it slightly boring. I made this and that and it tasted good, bad or ugly. No one is going to want to read that more then once. It’s always funny to notice that the posts I write that have nothing to do with food, are often the ones that get the most amount of comments or the most traffic. The funny stories that is. Or the ones that are deeply personal. It’s at those moments that the blogging community can be at it’s best, I think.
I think I’ve said it before but blogging has brought me so much! I’ve met so many wonderful people along the way, both in real life and through twitter and Facebook and obviously through the blog itself. People that are now part of my life and that I love dearly. How cool is that? So to everyone who thinks blogging is weird I would say; try it first (but with your heart and soul in it!) and then judge.
Coming back to Bea; I’ve had the pleasure of meeting her in person at Foodblogger Connect last year and while that was too brief and in a large group of people, I would have loved to chat a bit more with her. She seems to be the same person you ‘see’ online when you meet her. With that lovely French accent.
So naturally when I found out that she was going to make a book I just had to have it. And even though I think I had to wait for about two years to actually hold the book in my hands; it is here now. And it’s every bit as gorgeous as I had expected it to be. The photos are just gorgeous but the recipes. O the recipes are even better!
So when I found out that Nurit from Family Friendly Food had the same book, we quickly agreed on both cooking something from the book and blogging about it. We haven’t shared which recipe we’ve cooked, so for both of us it’s a surprise..;) Nurit and I have done a similar thing a while back where we picked pancakes recipes from around the world and made blintzes, blinis and some other yummy pancakes in the process. So it’s fun virtually cooking together again!
In the name of health I picked this gorgeous recipe. And guess what happens; I had beets in my veggie box this week so figured I’d roast those and then use these for the salad. So early this morning I wrapped them in aluminum foil and roasted them for a while. (1,5 hour as they were big) And guess what? Turns out they’re yellow beets! Now that was not what I wanted! This quinoa salad is so pretty because it’s pink. And yellow beetroots, ladies and gentleman, do not become pink. So I cheated a bit and bought a precooked beet at the supermarket this morning. Tsssk. I did still use the yellow one which is why the salad is not so pretty and pink as I wanted to, so I made up for it with the props used. 🙂
The salad itself is absolutely delicious with the sweetness of the tomatoes and the salty feta. Yum! The book I can only recommend as I plan to cook much more from it and I know Nurit has already done loads of recipes and was enthusiastic over most, if not all!
You can read Nurit’s post here.
La Tartine Gourmande – Recipes for an inspired life
Beetroot quinoa with feta
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons pinenuts
- 200 g quinoa uncooked
- 475 ml water
- seasalt
- 1 cooked beet large, peeled and diced and make sure it's red
- 100 g cherry tomatoes
- 90 g feta crumbled
- 1/4 piece red onion finely chopped
vinaigrette
- sea salt
- pepper
- 6 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons flat leaf parsley chopped
- 1 tablespoon cilantro chopped
- 1 tablespoon chives chopped
- 1 tablespoon mint chopped
- Toast the pinenuts in a frying pan over medium heat for 2 minutes or until lightly colored and fragrant, remove from the heat and set aside to cool.
- Rinse the quinoa under cold water and drain it in a colander. Add it to a pot and cover with the water or broth and a pinch of seasalt. Cook for about 12-15 minutes until most or all of the water is absorbed. Turn of the heat and let it stand for a further 5 minutes with the lid on
- Transfer the quinoa to a bowl and fluff it up with a fork and make sure it cools down. Add the beet and toss gently. If you do not mistakingly have a yellow beet then your quinoa will turn lovely and pink. Add the tomatoes, onion and cheese.
- Vinaigrette
- In a small bowl, combine the sea salt and pepper with the olive oil and lemon juice and whisk to combine. Stir in the herbs. Dress the salad with this vinaigrette and adjust the seasoning to your taste. Serve with the pinenuts
Disclaimer
The nutritional values above are calculated per portion. The details are based on standard nutritional tables and do not constitute a professional nutritional advice.
