I’m experimenting with different sorts of grains and just scored a bag of local organic quinoa from the Speerville Mill (local food + local business, woo). Invented this on the fly to go with a roasted chicken last night, and had leftovers for lunch today. It’s pretty tasty. Add more salt and/or vinegar if it seems too tame.

Ingredients

• 1/2 c wild rice (before cooking), cooked and cooled
• 1/2 c quinoa (before cooking), cooked and cooled
• 2 ribs celery, sliced thinly
• 1/3 bulb fennel, sliced thinly
• 3-4 scallions, sliced thinly
• 1 small shallot, minced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• Juice from 1 lemon
• Splash of white wine vinegar
• 1/2 tsp honey
• 3-4 tbsp olive oil
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper

Method
After cooking and letting the wild rice and quinoa cool, mix them together in a bowl. Add celery, fennel, and scallions, and mix.

Now put shallot, garlic, lemon juice, vinegar, honey, oil, salt and pepper in a jar and shake well to make a basic vinaigrette. Pour all of this over the stuff in the bowl, and mix well.

Ideally, you’ll make this a few hours in advance so the flavours can blend, but you can just serve it immediately if necessary. Leftovers keep well and taste even better the next day. x