Sit On A Paper Towel For This One

Here is another example of creativity in the kitchen that pays off big, big time. We're about to go on a juice diet for a few days, but before we do that our aim is to eat up what we have in the fridge so in preparing this meal I didn't think I really had much to work with. Some tomatoes, zucchini, a few mushrooms. Didn't sound too promising and I wasn't convinced about combining zucchini with mushrooms, but what the hell. Let's see what we come up with.

At first I considered a pasta or maybe a rice dish, but decided on quinoa to go with this odd assortment of veggies. I also had an avocado and wondered how I could add that to the mix. I found an avocado salad dressing recipe online that inspired me enough to try that. But I still wasn't sure if this would all work together. Alchemy.

So I sauteéd up the chunky cut mushrooms and the half moon cut zucchini. These were done separately. I halved the large cherry tomatoes and got them to a mushy place, smacked them down a bit to release some of the juices and added a squirt of balsamic vinegar (very important!) don't leave them on the hot stove too long, you don't want them to dry out. Set all your prepped veggies aside. I also toasted a small handful of pinenuts. You can see I left them on the stove a few seconds too long, but they were fine, just a tad dark.

While you sauté your veggies, get your quinoa on the stove. I made 1 cup which was the perfect amount for two people. Making quinoa is super easy, just follow the directions on the package and add a bit of olive oil to it at the end.

The avocado was simply put in a food processor (or blender) with a heaping tablespoon of plain yogurt, a wedge amount of lemon juice, salt and pepper. That's it.

Everything is now ready for assembling. I mixed most of the avocado up with the quinoa and placed it in the center of a dish surrounded by the vegetables, sprinkling of the pinenuts and made sure I got every last drop of that yummy tomato juice on there too. Add the remaining avocado mixture to the top as well.

Wow! I didn't realize what I was doing, but I just made the equivalent of a vegetable Banana Split! And seriously, this thing was freaking delicious. The smokey crunch of the nuts, the acidic punch of the tomatoes, the tangy dressing and the simple sauté on the vegetables all went together impeccably. PLEASE try this recipe and let me know if you think I'm blowing smoke up your ass. It's the real deal!

See you next time, @tacostate

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