Food & Wine's Roasted Carrot and Red Quinoa Salad

This was a fabulous quinoa salad recipe from Food & Wine that I tried after reading their October 2012 issue. As usual, I adapted it to what I had in the pantry and preferred at the grocery store. I served it with lemon pepper-marinated salmon.

Ingredients:

2 tsp Hungarian paprika (sweet paprika)

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp cayenne pepper

¼ tsp ground cardamom

salt

freshly ground pepper

4 large carrots, cut in half and then thinly sliced lengthwise

1 small red onion, thinly sliced

7 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

½ cup chopped walnuts

1 cup red quinoa

2 cups water

2 Tbsp lemon juice

2 large handfuls mixed baby salad greens

1 tsp whole-grain mustard

½ cup dried cranberries

2 Tbsp chopped curly parsley

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Spread the walnuts on a nonstick rimmed cookie sheet. Bake for about 7 minutes until lightly toasted. Pour in a bowl and set aside to cool.

Throughly mix the paprika, cumin, ginger, coriander, cinnamon, cayenne, and cardamom. Season with salt and pepper. Cut up the carrot and onion. Toss with 2 Tbsp of olive oil. Add in 1 Tbsp of the spice mixture and stir to coat. Spread the carrot and onion mix onto the baking sheet. Roast 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tender.

In a medium saucepan, combine the quinoa with 2 tsp of spice mix and the water. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer over low heat until the water is absorbed and the quinoa is tender. This should take around 20-25 minutes. Once water is absorbed, uncover, fluff and let cool slightly.

Mix together 2 Tbsp oil and 1 Tbsp lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper. Toss in the salad greens and mix until coated. Place the salad greens on a serving platter. In the same bowl, add the remaining 3 Tbsp of oil and 1 Tbsp lemon juice, plus the mustard and 1 tsp of the spices. Season again with salt, and pepper if desired. Add the quinoa, walnuts, cranberries, curly parsley, and the roasted vegetables. Spoon over the salad greens and serve.

[Adapted from Food & Wine Magazine, October 2012 issue - http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/roasted-carrot-and-red-quinoa-salad]