We now have a 3 year old! A 3 year old who eats things like quinoa, kiwi, prosciutto, and even a bite of sushi now and then. The crazy thing is that I can distinctly remember the first time I tried each of those foods – because I was far, far older than 3. But the small town I grew up in didn’t have fancy grocery stores that carried “fancy” foods – and on the occasion that they did, they most definitely wouldn’t have fit into our family’s small budget.

Growing up, vegetables that didn’t come from our garden came from a can, which means I also can remember the first time I had fresh broccoli (with ranch dip!) and cauliflower (with ranch dip!) and even fresh spinach. And even better than ranch dip? The spinach was in salad-form, coated in the late 90’s-early 2000’s trendy warm bacon dressing.

I immediately came home to recreate that magical, fancy salad for my family… only I didn’t wash the spinach well enough so I served my family a huge bowl of gritty spinach salad with warm bacon dressing. True story. One I have yet to live down. (Is that spinach? Did you wash it this time? IT WAS OVER 15 YEARS AGO!)

And occasionally, I have this dream where I’m catering some gigantic, super special event and I realized that I forgot to wash the spinach that the President (or the Queen or Peyton Manning – the really important people) is about to eat. Another true story.

My to-be sister-in-law brought this salad to a family get-together a couple of years ago and it has been one of my favorites ever since. It’s fresh spinach (triple-washed at the farm and then washed again at home!), quinoa (cooked and then chilled – so plan ahead), toasted pine nuts, and crumbled goat cheese tossed in a simple vinaigrette.

It’s as easy to make as it is to go back for seconds.

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Spinach and Quinoa Salad with Goat Cheese

An easy salad with fresh spinach, quinoa, goat cheese, and pine nuts tossed in a simple vinaigrette.

Ingredients

• For the salad
• 1 cup uncooked quinoa
• 1/4 cup pine nuts
• 3 oz fresh baby spinach, chopped (half a bag or clam shell)
• 4 oz goat cheese (about 1/3 of a log)
• For the dressing
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 2 Tbsp finely chopped shallot
• 1 Tbsp spicy brown or dijon mustard (I use Creole)
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper

Instructions

1. Cook quinoa in water according to package directions.
2. Spread the cooked quinoa on a plate or other shallow dish and refrigerate until completely cool, stirring once or twice if you're in a hurry.
3. In a small skillet over medium heat, toast the pine nuts ~2 minutes and then shake the pan and heat for another minute.
4. Transfer to a small plate and let cool.
5. In a large bowl, add the chopped spinach, cold quinoa (it must be cold so it doesn't wilt the spinach), crumbled goat cheese, and cooled pine nuts.
6. In a small bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, shallot, and mustard.
7. Slowly stream in the olive oil while whisking and add a pinch of salt and pepper to taste.
8. Before serving, toss the dressing with the salad and serve.
9. Leftovers will keep a couple of days covered in the fridge.

Notes

Yields: 6 generous servings

Estimated time: 45 minutes