This is the least paleo recipe I’ve shared, as it includes grains and goat dairy. After many years on an autoimmune diet, I’ve reintroduced gluten-free grains and goat dairy, and wanted to show you how I’m enjoying those ingredients.
If you’re curious about the when and how of food reintroduction, read my post 3 Ways To Successfully Re-Introduce Foods After Elimination Diets.
About the ingredients in Asparagus + Herb Quinoa Pilaf
Quinoa — I recommend soaking your quinoa before cooking, to remove the phytic acid and make it more digestible. However, in full disclosure, I didn’t plan ahead enough to soak my quinoa. While I folded my laundry, paid bills, and did the dishes on the day I made this, soaking my quinoa was just too much added adulting for me. If you want to increase digestibility, however, here are instructions for soaking quinoa.
Asparagus — If you don’t have asparagus, feel free to use fresh or frozen peas, lightly cooked so they remain vibrant and green.
Pistachios, orange zest, and dried figs — I love this combination of flavors, especially with spring veggies.
Goat cheese — if you can’t do dairy, use chopped avocado or a non-dairy cheese such as almond ricotta or cashew cheese.
- 1 cup uncooked quinoa, soaked if desired (instructions for soaking quinoa here
- 1¾ cup stock or broth of choice and/or water (if using bone broth, I recommend 1 cup broth with ¾ cup water. If using stock, you can use 1¾ cup of it)
- Salt and pepper
- 1 bunch asparagus
- Zest from ½ orange
- Juice from ½ lemon
- 2 Tbs. chopped fresh dill
- ¼ cup chopped dried figs
- 2 Tbs. chopped pistachios
- 3 oz. goat cheese, crumbled
- Optional: cooked chicken, to add protein if desired
- Before soaking or preparing the quinoa, make sure to rinse it thoroughly. Otherwise, it can be pasty. Put the quinoa in a bowl and cover with water, and then drain through a sieve. Repeat this process.
- To cook the soaked quinoa, follow the instructions here. To cook the rinsed quinoa immediately, put it in a pot with the broth/stock/water. Add a pinch of salt (depending on how salty the cooking liquid is) and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer for about 15 minutes, until it has absorbed the liquid. Fluff with a fork.
- Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to a boil and add a pinch of salt. Cut off the tough lower stems from the asparagus, and cut it on a diagonal into bite-sized pieces. Have ready a bowl of ice water. Blanch the asparagus by cooking it quickly in the boiling water until just vibrant green and still crunchy — just a couple of minutes. Then, drain the asparagus in a sieve and transfer it directly into the ice water to stop the cooking and retain the color and crunch.
- Toss together the asparagus, quinoa, orange zest, lemon juice, dill, and figs. Season with salt and pepper.
- Before serving, top with the crumbled goat cheese and the pistachios. If you want to make it a full meal, add chopped cooked chicken or another protein of your choice.
Asparagus &Herb Quinoa absolutely delicious. Flavors just perfect. Still thinking about several days later. I did use feta instead of goat which is a personal preference.
The feta sounds delicious, and so glad to hear you enjoyed the recipe!
really nice set of ingredients, thank you, especially the figs and pistachios, event the dill, none of which are, at least to me, used very often
Thank you for a truly lovely collection of ingredients, especially the figs and pistachios, as well as the dill, none of which are used very often, at least not by me.