Recipe Hack | California Pizza Kitchen’s Quinoa Arugula Salad

This ‘salad’ was beyond words.

It’s not your typical “I’m going to be hungry in an hour after eating this” kind of salad. It is comforting and fresh. It has a mixture of textures: chewy sun dried tomatoes, softness of the quinoa and bite of onions. Flavours were so perfectly balanced between the salt, tang of lime, creamy avocado and peppery arugula. So darn delicious. Too bad I didn’t come up with it – it was the genius chefs at California Pizza Kitchen. I can’t wait to get back there to order this again. But until then, I’ve made my own version.

 

Recipe Hack: California Pizza Kitchen’s Quinoa Arugula Salad

Feel free to adjust the ratios to your preference 🙂

INGREDIENTS
• 1/4C sun dried tomatoes
• 1/4 med sized red onion, sliced thinly
• Juice of one lime
• 2C each of arugula, loosely packed spinach
• 1/2C quinoa
• 1/4 – 1/3C extra virgin olive oil
• Avocado, half
• 1.5tsp thyme, dried
• Epicure Unami seasoning
• salt and pepper
• Optional: Feta – the original had feta but you can omit if making plantbased.

METHOD

1. Let onions soak in lime juice for a few minutes while you combine tomatoes, thyme, feta (if using), quinoa, EVOO and arugula together.
2. Add the onions and toss.
3. Top with avocado.
4. Sprinkle with Epicure seasoning and salt/pepper.

Do you have a go-to salad recipe that is always a hit?