Quinoa Salad, Take 1

So what have I been doing with all my free time now that I'm not training for anything?  Besides getting my ass kicked by CrossFit classes, I'm doing a little more cooking.



Quinoa Salad with Pineapple-Roasted Pepper Puree

I had an awesome quinoa salad while in Austin and I really want to try to recreate it.  This is attempt No. 1.  I'll give it a B+.  It was good, but not quite great.  Here's the recipe if you want to try it as is.  All measurements are guesses

Salad:
2 cups quinoa, rinsed, cooked, and cooled
2 cups greens, coarsely chopped
4 oz goat cheese, crumbled

Puree:
2 poblano peppers, roasted under broiler until skin blisters
4 pineapple rings, reserve juice
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp white pepper
Pulse all ingredients in food processor

Drizzle quinoa with a little olive oil and toss with greens and crumbled goat cheese until mixed.  Serve on a plate with puree on the side.  Garnish with a grilled pineapple ring and 1/2 sliced avocado.

A few additional notes:  The original recipe used red quinoa, I only had plain.  It also originally called for sheep's cheese but I only found goat's cheese in the grocery store.  Sheep's cheese is probably a little sweeter, goat's cheese is a little more tangy. 

I thought it was missing a little zing.  So I added champagne vinegar to the puree for the leftovers tomorrow.  On the next try, I might add one roasted jalapeno and some lime juice to the puree to make more of a vinaigrette.  I'm going to track down red quinoa and sheep's cheese for the next time, too.