I’ve been building up to this Quinoa Pesto Salad recipe for a week now. It includes all that I love about summer – basil and tomatoes! I figure I can call this a “salad” because it’s eaten cold, and the pesto has both basil + parsley – bring on the leafy greens!
Last week I posted my recipe for simple and quick pesto. I also posted a couple of “how to” articles: roasted garlic (which is needed for the pesto unless you opt to use garlic powder) + roasted mushrooms. So now my friends, it’s time to put it ALL together!
It’s so freakin’ easy, here’s how I’d do it: roast the garlic and mushrooms at the same time, meanwhile cook up some quinoa and get all the pesto ingredients ready to go. When the roasted garlic is done, you can put this last ingredient into the blender/food processor and voila! Pesto! You could easily do this prep work on the weekend during batch cooking, OR prep like items when cooking other meals. So for example, if I was baking potatoes for dinner on Monday night, I would also throw in the mushrooms and garlic so they’re already done when I need them later in the week.
And if you really want to make life easy, you can always purchase store bought pesto! Trader Joe’s has an amazing one that I’d recommend, check it out here.
This is a super easy, delicious and nutritious weeknight meal. Here’s what you need:
Pesto
Roasted mushrooms
Quinoa
Tomatoes
Prosciutto
Mozzarella – optional
As you can see, not that many ingredients! All of the prep work is super quick except for the roasted mushrooms and garlic – which you don’t need to babysit. The key for weeknight meals is to do the roasting when you have time to wait for it, and not when you get home from work starving!
- 2 medium tomatoes
- 4 ounces prosciutto
- 1 pound roasted mushrooms
- 2 cups pesto
- 4 cups quinoa, cooked
- 2-4 ounces mozzarella, optional
- Dice the tomatoes and add to a large bowl.
- Using scissors and one slice of prosciutto at a time, cut one inch pieces into the bowl.
- Add the roasted mushrooms, pesto and quinoa into the bowl. If using mozzarella, dice and add to the bowl. Mix well and enjoy!
If mushrooms aren't your jam, switch them out for roasted asparagus! I've never tried it, but I imagine one bunch of asparagus would do the trick.
Because of the prosciutto, this will go bad within 3-4 days.