Jack Piepan: Quinoa Salad with Avocado, Tomato, and Pickled Mustard Root

It's not all meat and cheese here in the Piepan household, as much as we'd like it to be. When hot weather hits and we want something cool and refreshing, a giant steak or a pot of stew isn't gonna cut it. We've been kind of messing around with quinoa lately, testing its malleability as an ingredient. We've got a quinoa chili that we like to make from time to time, and this quinoa salad was our first effort to bring quinoa into the realm of cool dishes good for spring and summer weather. Then we put some meat and cheese on a plate and ate it with the quinoa salad. Nobody's perfect.

Quinoa's a big deal. It's like a superfood or whatever. At the very least, that's what the health food organizations would have you believe. 2013 was the Year of Quinoa, according to an organization that is in the market to give the agricultural exports of Central and South American countries a boost. Check out some statistics on quinoa here and decide for yourself. LOOK AT ALL THAT MANGANESE AND PHOSPHORUS! YUM! That's good for you, right?

The truth is that we like quinoa quite a bit. It's a difficult thing to feature in a dish because it doesn't have a lot of flavor on its own, and it doesn't absorb flavors in quite the same way as, say, couscous. We think this quinoa salad does a pretty good job, though.

Anyway, here's what you need:

-4 cups cooked quinoa (approximately 1.5 cups dry)
-2 cloves garlic, minced (more or less to taste)
-3/4 cup onions or chives, minced
-1/2 cup fresh pepper, chopped (we used poblano, but you can use what you like to adjust spiciness)
-1 1/3 cup tomatoes, chopped
-1/2 cup parsley or cilantro, chopped (we used parsley)
-1 Tbsp pickled mustard root, chopped (if you can't find this, you can just put in a little sriracha or hot sauce to round out the flavor and bump up the heat, BUT YOU'LL BE MISSING OUT ON EVERYTHING GREAT IN LIFE)
-juice of 2 limes
-1/8 tsp celery seed
-1 avocado, diced
-1/8 tsp cumin
-dash of paprika
-a few grinds of pepper
-dash of Chinese five-spice powder
-dash of dried dill

A few words about pickled mustard root. IT'S GREAT! Beth found it in one of her weekly excursions to 888 International Market, and as with any new obsession, it's making its way into most of what we're cooking these days. Check it out:

It's really good! Even though it's mustard root, it's not very mustard-y. It's more... I don't know. We've been trying to find a good description for it. Most often people say it has a kind of spicy sauerkraut flavor, but that's not quite right either. Also known as Zha cai, or in some very helpful instances as Szechuan Vegetable, it can be found in a few different forms: whole, sliced, chopped, etc. The flavor of zha cai available can vary depending on brand (like any pickle). This one is more on the saltier end of the spectrum, which comes in handy in dishes like this, where the flavors need a little boost.

Before I forget, this is one of those dishes that it's sometimes better to make the day before so the flavors have time to come together.

Okay, so you're gonna start by cooking the quinoa according to the directions. Then stick it in the fridge or freezer to cool. While that's going on, prep everything else. The dice of the tomatoes and avocados is important so that it's spread out fairly evenly throughout the dish, as opposed to their being huge chunks of stuff every four or five bites.

This seems like a good time to talk about how to pit and dice an avocado. Beth's method works great and uses the hull of the avocado to keep the meat in place while you dice.

First thing, cut off the end where it was attached to the tree. Then cut all the way around the outside of the avocado longways so you get two equal halves. Take it apart. The pit will stick in one of the halves. Cut into the pit just enough so it sticks to the knife:

Then twist. The pit should come right out. Now take one of the halves and make several small cuts going down and then across the avocado using a smaller knife.