Campbell’s Chicken Quinoa Salad

One of two people I credit my love for food and ability to feed myself semi-decent meals is my dear old friend Campbell Whitman Riemens at Boots for Breakfast. She is a fellow mother abroad whose story and recipes I look forward to sharing here. (You will hear about my other food mentor soon enough.) Campbell and I have been friends for 14 years. When we first met, she visited me and her cousin, who was my unofficial roommate, at university back in Texas. I didn’t know how to cook and was living off of ramen noodles, Chipotle burritos, and the campus dining hall sludge. Campbell always impressed me with her ability to take random ingredients she found in our fridge and create unbelievably impressive meals. Here we are more than a decade later, and when she comes over I pretend that I cannot cook, she goes through my fridge and whips meals together. My first summer in Paris, she pulled this quinoa chicken salad together. Instead of just simply being amazed and happy to be fed, I took crazy notes, made a few tweeks, and have been cooking it every summer since. It’s the perfect lunch to prepare a day or two in advance and save in the fridge for ready-to-go lunches. I have also served it as a refreshing light meal to lunch guests.

Ingredients

for 2 people

2 chicken breasts

2  tablespoons of canola oil

1 cup of quinoa

1 1/4 cup of water

1 teaspoon of chicken stock or half of a cube

1 cup of zucchini, diced in cubes

1 cup of cucumber, diced in cubes

5 leaves of basil, finely chopped

1/2 bunch of cilantro or parsley, finely chopped

2 small shallots, minced

1/2 cup of pine nuts, toasted (you can toast a full cup and save the leftovers for later)

1/4 cup of olive oil

1/2 a lemon

1/2 teaspoon of cumin

salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 175C (350F).
2. Thoroughly rinse the quinoa and place it in a pot set over high heat with 1 1/4 cups of water. Bring the quinoa to a boil, then cover the pot and lower the heat and cook until all the liquid is absorbed, about 12 to 15 minutes. (The quinoa will look like little spirals.) Turn the heat off and place a paper towel between the pot and the lid and let it sit for at least 5 minutes or until you are ready with the vegetables.
3. While the quinoa is cooking, season two chicken breasts with salt and pepper on both sides. Pour 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil onto a pan and once it is hot add the chicken breasts and sear for about 2 minutes a side. Put the browned chicken breasts in a roasting pan or baking dish in the oven for about 15 minutes or until cooked through. (This will depend on the thickness of the meat.)
4. Clean off the pan or take a separate pan and place it on the stovetop on high heat. Once it is nice and hot, throw your pine nuts in the pan and give it a little jiggle a few times. Do not try to multi-task while doing this step because those little suckers burn fast. You just want them on the hot pan for about 45 seconds to 1 minute. Set them aside in a bowl to cool.
5. Once the quinoa is cooked pour it into a bowl and fluff with a fork. Add the cubed zucchini, cucumber, herbs, and minced shallots. Mix together.
6. In a separate bowl measure in the cumin, squeeze in the juice from half a lemon, add a pinch of salt and pepper, and mix together. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil and mix together. You can pour the entire vinaigrette over the salad or let your guests add their own. (I have poured it over the salad and let it sit in the fridge for days and loved it!!)
7. Slice the chicken diagonally and place on top of a bed of the quinoa salad. Sprinkle with some pine nuts and add a little sprig of cilantro or parsley for a garnish.

A little Manna from Paris…
– Canola oil is huile de colza in french.
– Cilantro is coriander and can be found at the farmer’s market (marche) or most asian grocery stores. Try this one or get off at Metro Belleville and you will have many stores to choose from.

Image by Ajiri Aki