Food Adventures {Quinoa and Grilled Zucchini}

 {Don't forget the goat cheese!  It complements and balances out the avocado and cilantro dressing which would've been weird without}

Besides the Saturday afternoon flip cup tourney and Patron shots in honor of a good friend's birthday, this past weekend was pretty low-key.  My head hit my pillow pretty early both nights, partly due to said shots, and you know what they say about early to bed- early to rise!  With lots of energy and more time on my hands than usual as there was no recovery (mmm I love a top shelf tequila!), I decided to do some cooking!  I poured a large glass of refreshing Sauvignon Blanc, which was on sale from 17.99 to 9.99 (yes!!), quickly looked up a recipe I had bookmarked quite some time ago and immediately got to work.  Here's what you'll need:

QUINOA AND GRILLED ZUCCHINI 

Ingredients 

1 large avocado, ripe
juice of 1 lime
1/4 cup lightly packed cilantro
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup plain yogurt
3/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt

3 large eggs

1 large zucchini, cut into 3/4-inch thick coins
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
couple pinches of fine grain sea salt

2 cups quinoa, cooked, room temperature
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
1/4 cup goat cheese, crumbled
a bit of chopped cilantro for garnish 

Instructions

Prepare the cilantro-avocado dressing by blending the avocado, lime juice, cilantro, garlic, yogurt, water, and salt in a blender (I used my handy-dandy bullet). Set aside.

Hard boil the three eggs. Place the eggs in a pot and cover with cold water by a 1/2-inch or so. Bring to a gentle boil. Now turn off the heat, cover, and let sit for exactly seven minutes. Have a big bowl of ice water ready and when the eggs are done cooking place them in the ice bath for three minutes or so - long enough to stop the cooking. Set aside.

While the eggs are cooling start preparing the zucchini by tossing it with olive oil and salt in a medium-sized bowl. Prepare your grill (medium-high heat). If you are worried about the zucchini coins falling through the grill you can thread them onto kabob skewers (stab through the green skin). Grill until zucchini are tender and cooked through, roughly 5 minutes on each side. Remove from the grill and cut each zucchini coin into quarters.

Crack and peel each egg, cut each egg into quarters lengthwise. Assemble the salad by tossing the quinoa with about 2/3 cups of the avocado vinaigrette. Top with the grilled zucchini, pine nuts, eggs, goat cheese, and a bit of chopped cilantro for garnish.

Enjoy!  Did you try anything new and tasty this past weekend?

{via 101 Cookbooks}