Right guys, it’s salad time! After the EHEC/ecoli thread is finally over, Europe can let out a sigh of relief and devour raw vegetables again. Not that I ever stopped eating them. Here in Britain we were quite shielded from the whole outbreak – phew! Back at home in Luxembourg people were a bit more suspicious (or so I hear), so guys, it’s time to chuck out the soups and stews and celebrate the lovely “comeback” of salads!

Sceptics, brace yourself: this salad is awesome! Super duper mega awesome! You could actually forget you’re munching on raw veggies – that’s how great it is! I fed it to my dear friend E. – or Agent Orange as I call her (hint: she calls me wasaaaaabi… YouTube video geeks will get the reference) – and she loved it. To put it into context (and make it more dramatic): E. was starving, totally grinding her teeth when she arrived at mine to do some evening editing work. So I whipped up this colourful salad (with a bit of a bad consciounce – come on, this girl was starving, and you don’t serve salad leaves to a starving friend). Anyway, I put it in front of her and she totally loved it – so much that she whipped out her iPhone and started putting pics of it onto Facebook. Nice one.

Anyway, the magic of this salad lies all in the fact that it’s playing with textures, colours and degrees of temperature. First of all the onions are fried until they reach a state of translucent caramelized meltiness – lovely. Then, the quinoa is added whilst still lukewarm. Add some al dente broadbeans and edamame, some fresh lambs lettuce, tangy mint leaves and creamy goat’s cheese and sprinkle it all with toasted pine nuts (for some crrrrrrrunch). Then chuck over some great gremolata (vinaigrette) and dig in. Absolutely legen – wait for it – dary!