Seasonal Recipe: Spring Quinoa Salad

What's healthy, super delicious and made of Japanese fresh produce?

To me, spring means bidding sayonara to foods hot and heavy and instead making room for those light, crisp and refreshing. And as we all know, there are numerous benefits to eating produce in season — it’s often tastier, fresher with a higher nutritional value, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly than its imported friends, to name a few. So forget Bart Simpson’s infamous chant: “you don’t win friends with salad,” this season, because with the incredible produce Spring brings, healthy salads will be your best pals!

Here is one of my most favorite recipes for tossing together an assortment of nutritious spring herbs and veggies during the early spring days: Spring Quinoa Salad.

What To Prepare:

• A small bunch of fresh parsley
• A small bunch of fresh mint
• 1 cup quinoa, (surprisingly found in most rice isles of most Japanese supermarkets)
• 4-5 stalks of asparagus
• 1 small punnet of shelled green peas
• 1 small punnet of snap peas
• 1/2 cup of shelled edamame beans
• 1 cup of red grapes, sliced
• 1/2 cup of nuts and seeds of choice (I used pumpkin seeds and pistachio nuts)
• Juice and zest of one lemon
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• a pinch of salt and pepper

How To Cook It:

1. Using a sharp knife, roughly chop all herbs.
2. Cut asparagus and snap peas in pieces roughly the same size while removing their woody ends.
3. Cook Quinoa in boiling water according to the package instructions.
4. Place the asparagus, green peas, snap peas, and edamame beans into a heatproof colander and rest it over the quinoa pan. Cover and steam for a quick minute, or until tenderized. Once done, drain and rinse the quinoa and vegetables under cold running water, then leave both to cool.
5. Combine all salad ingredients together and mix gently
6. Refrigerate … if you don’t accidentally eat the whole thing!

Using this recipe? Share your photos with us via Facebook or #savvytokyo on Instagram. Enjoy! Xx