Whenever the weather gets warmer I crave food that is a bit more refreshing to the palette. Big salads are going to be on heavy rotation for the next few months. Over the weekend, I made a main-dish salad using summer ingredients. California Walnuts is hosting a Virtual Salad Party, where food bloggers cook and review recipes by three featured chefs. For my selection, I chose a quinoa-chicken salad with toasted walnuts, grapes, and arugula recipe by Aida Mollenkamp. I made several adjustments to the original recipe. Grapes aren’t in season here yet, so I added strawberries and yellow plum tomatoes to give sweetness to the salad. The recipe also called for chopped celery, but I prefer sliced radishes for extra crunch in my salads. I also incorporated freshly chopped basil and mixed arugula with baby spinach. I simply didn’t feel like eating too many bitter greens this time. I absolutely loved the taste of this salad. Although the flavors were quite simple, I found that the balsamic vinegar and fresh basil complimented each other very well. I also enjoyed the different textures of the ingredients in the salad. Oh, and did I mentioned the chopped toasted walnuts? Recently, I have been adding chopped toasted walnuts to everything—on top of salads, oatmeal, or breakfast yogurt. Toasting the walnuts brings out more nutty flavors and removes some of that filmy and bitter aftertaste that I find when eating raw walnuts. Try adding some toasted chopped walnuts to your next salad. You won’t regret it, I promise!
