KITCHEN SINK QUINOA

the kitchen sink quinoa is a trick i stole from becca baust (all my good tricks come from becca baust), because nobody wants egg and cheese on a bagel every night. becca has a million recipes on her blog for clever grains salads, you should go peruse. my go-to has always been this quinoa/arugula/beet/goat cheese number i invented after ordering an insane beet salad at patsy's a few years ago, but the one i've been knocking out lately is quickly becoming a favorite, simply because it requires zero brain cells and almost no planning whatsoever.

basically it's any grain you have in the pantry (this time it wasn't quinoa, it was: barley)

plus any vegetable you have in the fridge that looks interesting (this time: sweet corn on the cob, haricots verts, cherry tomato, beets, and carrots)

then two big old handfuls of raw almonds (crunch, very necessary)

aaand a crumbly cheese if you have any (i didn't)

i also added lentils (legumes!) and then snapped these ultra high quality photos on my cell phone because i like to live life on the wild side.

so you cook your grains and chop your veggies then mix them all together, it's not too tough. i like to nuke a bowlful for about 30 seconds till it's warm-ish, then add a little olive oil/vinegar dressing and salt and pepper to taste. it's terribly homemakey of me.

i'm working on getting henry holbrook thrilled about barley, because barley, let me assure you, is a particularly rad grain.

becca explains the concept better HERE. 

i have a testimony of the kitchen sink quinoa and i love my mom and dad amen.

if any of you know of any earth shattering ingredients i should be adding to these situations, please do let a girl know. or if you have advice for slicing corn from the cob without making a huge mess of yellow confetti all over the stove. because . . . 

xo!