Note from Joy: I didn't mind that the sun woke me up this morning because it's a wonderful sign of spring! As the temp warms up it's the ideal time to start adding more raw dishes to your meal plan. I absolutely LOVE this dish from guest blogger Bianca and hope you do too!
Spring is *finally* starting to make its presence known, and with warmer weather comes a desire to eat lighter, as Mother Natures bounty enters the abundance phase of her cycle.
In The Vitality Kitchen we love change, which is why we change our menu every two weeks; this zucchini salad was a runaway hit when we debut it, as people were ready to shake off the heavy stews and soups of winter in favour of lighter salads.
Zucchini spirals and quinoa act as a vehicle for our pistachio mint dressing, and we used large leaves of mint to brighten every bite- added bonus, no need to chop the herbs! To garnish this salad we used raw pistachios, we even had a client call us genius for this combination of flavour.
While we dont claim to be genius we ARE food lovers, and this salad is a food lovers dream!
Mains & Sides
Quinoa Salad with Zucchini and Mint Pistachio Dressing
Print
Ingredients
- 1 zucchini, spiraled with a spiralizer or shaved using a peeler
- ½ cup quinoa, cooked according to package instructions
- Dressing
- 1 tbsp chopped scallions
- ½ cup pistachios, soaked 2 hours and drained
- 1 clove garlic
- 1/3 cup lemon juice
- 2/3 cup olive oil
- ½ cup fresh mint leaves, packed
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Garnish
- ½ cup raw pistachios
- ¼ cup fresh mint leaves
Instructions
- In a food processor add the pistachio, scallion, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, mint, salt and pepper; pulse until it reaches your desired consistency. This sauce can be store up to one week covered in the refrigerator.
- Toss the dressing with the cooked quinoa and zucchini noodles; garnish with pistachios and mint leaves.
Definitely going to try with my new spiralizer! Does this make one serving with leftover sauce?
ReplyHi Angela, I was wondering the same thing but didn't want to use 2/3 cup olive oil so I halved the dressing ingredients. I found that a 1/2 batch of the dressing was perfect for 1 zucchini and about 3/4 cup cooked quinoa. This made a very generous serving for 1 but maybe not enough for 2 servings. Hope that helps!