Spring Vegetable Salad with Quinoa and Goat Cheese
This seasonal salad combines all of spring’s best ingredients in one beautiful, fresh dish. Be sure to toss the salad just before serving to ensure the vegetables retain their vibrancy.
Ingredients
- 1¼ cups quinoa
- 1¼ pounds fava bean pods
- Kosher salt to taste
- 1 bunch asparagus trimmed and cut into 2- to 3-inch pieces
- 1¼ cups shelled peas
- 1 bunch radishes trimmed and sliced
- 2 small watermelon radishes peeled and thinly sliced
- 1½ cups pea shoots
- ½ cup chopped fresh parsley plus more to garnish
- ¼ cup chopped fresh chives plus more to garnish
- ¼ cup Champagne vinegar or white wine vinegar
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- Freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 6 ounces fresh goat cheese crumbled
Instructions
- Cook quinoa according to package directions. Shell fava beans and discard pods.
- Bring a pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Have a large bowl of ice water ready. Add asparagus to boiling water and cook until crisp-tender, about 2 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and transfer to ice bath. Add peas to pot and cook until crisp-tender, about 2 minutes. Transfer to ice bath along with asparagus. Once cool, use a slotted spoon to transfer vegetables to a tea towel to dry. Add more ice to ice bath, if necessary. Add fava beans and cook for 1 minute, then transfer to ice bath. Once cool, drain fava beans. Peel thick outer skin from fava beans so you are left with the tender, bright green centers.
- Combine asparagus, peas, and fava beans in a large bowl. Add radishes, pea shoots, and herbs and toss.
- Whisk together vinegar, olive oil, and mustard. Season with salt and pepper. Toss vegetables with vinaigrette and season as necessary.
- Divide quinoa among 4 plates. Top with dressed vegetables, then sprinkle with goat cheese and additional herbs. Serve immediately.
Photo Credit Lisa Monahan
Molly Shuster
Molly is a freelance food stylist, writer and recipe developer. She is one of the co-recipe editors of Gather Journal and has had her work published in various publications including Boston Magazine, Yankee Magazine, The New York Times, Food and Wine, Family Fun, The Boston Globe and Edible Vineyard, among others. Molly currently divides her time between New York and Boston.
I have a small Farmstead Goat Cheese business in Humboldt County, California. I market my cheese solely at our local farmer’s market and was wondering if I could share this recipe with my customers? I would give credit of course.
We would love that! Feel free to share some of our other fresh goat cheese recipes as well. One can never have enough!