This is the final recipe from my Plated delivery. In hindsight, I probably should have made this dish first, because it had the most produce. The mango and avocado were a little squishy in places, but this might've had more to do with bruising during delivery than age of the produce.
I was skeptical of this recipe when I picked it. During the selection process, this was our "filler" recipe. It sounded weird, but it looked pretty. My husband was intrigued by "jalapeno vinaigrette".
Remember in my gyro post I mentioned that most of the ingredients come in a handy little bag? This is what I meant:
Three items for one meal? Convenience! Let's get started.
The Contents:
Ingredients: quinoa, sunflower seeds, jalapeno, shallot, mango, lime, avocado, dinosaur kale, cilantro, and apple cider vinegar.Dinosaur kale? Cool! We made our selection based on picture and title alone. We didn't look at the recipe specifics beforehand, so I was surprised to see that the leafy green in the picture was kale.
Look at all the healthy things! Let's be real, that much nutrition never makes it to my plate. I couldn't wait to get started.
Preparation:
This time, the recipe started out with the cooking steps. First up was to let the quinoa cook for 10 minutes.
From this:
To this:
The next step was a little strange. The recipe said to heat a small pan until it started smoking. I've always heard that heating an empty bad is bad. Is this an old wives' tale? According to Google, it depends on the pan and the temperature. I figured I give it a minute or two to smoke and then continue on regardless. Sure enough, the pan did smoke. You can even kind of see it in the picture:
The reason for the smoking pan was to char the seeded jalapeno.
Ouch! Sorry buddy, the recipe made me do it! What? You don't talk to your food? :)
Toast the sunflower seeds:
Now we wash and chop the produce:
Sorry buddy, this isn't kitty food. This isn't even meat, but thanks for the photo op!
Can we stop for a moment to talk about mangoes? First of all, I had never cut up a mango before. I wrestled it away from its pit (?) and started diligently chopping it into bite-sized pieces. Halfway through I asked myself, "Was I supposed to remove the skin?" I checked the recipe, no mention. I Googled and it seemed to be a split decision. I decided to try a piece and it was bitter and awful. Do you know how annoying it is to cut the skin off of lots of individual little mango pieces? Very! The more you know...
Once everything was chopped, it was time to make the vinaigrette. It consisted of the apple cider vinegar, a chopped shallot, and the chopped charred jalapeno. It tasted pretty good. I felt like I was making something I'd see at Chipotle. You can't go wrong with Chiptole, so I figured this recipe was going to be great.
Next up, mix the kale, avocado, mango, and half of the vinaigrette.
Plate the quinoa first, then the salad, then top with the remaining vinaigrette and sunflower seeds. What a beautiful plate!
I have to hand it to Plated, they make some beautiful recipes.
The Verdict:
I hate to say it, but this was another blah recipe that I wouldn't make again. My husband felt that the quinoa was too weird for a salad. He also wasn't a fan of the kale. I can't even really explain why I didn't like it. There was so much going on with the recipe, yet I still felt like it was bland. I guess substituting rice for the quinoa could have helped, along with more vinaigrette.
Even though this made two huge plates, my husband and I ate about half of one plate. It was disappointing to once again throw away so much food.
See my next post for a Plated wrap-up.
