As much as I love food and cooking, I find it’s a bit of a chore sometimes. Sometimes I would just rather keep hiking or biking or making lipstick and save my appetite up for a week so I can take full advantage of vegetarian Indian buffet night. Remember the Jetsons? How they had those wee capsules they ate for breakfast that had everything they needed but were right there and pretty much instant? Those would do nicely sometimes (though not all the time, of course). Anyhow, I think this salad is about the closest thing to a perfect capsule meal I’ve devised yet, and with the added benefit of looking much less suspicious than a bowl of pills at a potluck dinner.

I started off with quinoa and chia seeds—two fantastic plant based sources of protein. Sautéed onions and mushrooms added fantastic, deep flavour. Arugula and spinach, along with a healthy handful of toasted pecans add extra vitamins and crunch. I finished the entire affair off with several generous sprinklings of smoked paprika, the juice of half a lemon, and a nice drizzle of one of my favorite nice olive oil (pomace) (USA / Canada)s. It’s a fantastic dish for potlucks, and is excellent topped with a poached egg or two for breakfast the next morning. Yum!

Quinoa & Chia Seed Summer Salad

1½ cups quinoa, rinsed
¼ cup chia seeds

1 onion, chopped
15 cremini mushrooms, sliced
Freshly ground black pepper
Butter, as needed

4 cups mixed spinach & arugula
½ cup chopped pecans, toasted

1–2 tsp hot smoked paprika
Juice of half a lemon
Good olive oil (pomace) (USA / Canada), for drizzling
Salt, to taste

Steam the quinoa seeds in 2 2/3 cups of water for 20 minutes, until tender. Stir in the chia seeds.

While the quinoa is steaming, sauté the onion and mushrooms in some butter with freshly ground pepper.

Mix the quinoa & chia seeds together with the mushrooms and onions, and add the spinach & arugula, and the pecans.

Season to taste with hot smoked paprika, lemon juice, olive oil (pomace) (USA / Canada), and salt. Enjoy!