Blue Pea Flower Quinoa Salad

We're mostly 'rice-and-dishes' people. This means having a plate of plain white rice along with various dishes of meat and vegetables, and sometimes soup. Salads make a rare appearance on our table.

Blue Pea Flower, Plum, Quinoa Salad

I made this to get an idea what blue pea flowers taste like. For a first try, I wanted to appreciate the flavour of the flower in it's freshest state. Frying it in batter or putting it in an omelette had to wait although I was really keen to have it that way.

Blue pea flowers, I'm delightfully surprised to discover, carry a mild, pleasant sort of sweetness. Pinch the lower bit of the flower away, eat only the petals. It was quite nice to munch on. Make sure the ones you're having are pesticide free, of course! I plant my own; no worries there.

Here's how I made this salad, roughly.

Blue Pea Flower Quinoa Salad
Ingredients:
- 8 fresh blue pea flowers (pinch lower tip away)
- ½ cup quinoa (cook according to instructions)
- 4 fresh plums (sliced)
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 2 tsp soft brown sugar
- 1 calamansi lime
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- Salt (to taste)
- A handful of fresh coriander (chopped)

How-to:
1) Rub plums with sugar and balsamic vinegar. Roast in a pre-heated oven at 170C for about 15 minutes or until lightly charred.
2) Place cooked quinoa, roasted plums and fresh coriander into a bowl.
3) Squeeze calamansi lime juice over, along with sesame oil and a small sprinkle of salt.
4) Toss to combine.
5) Serve garnished with blue pea flowers on top.

1) Prepare the plums. Bake these first.
2) Cook the quinoa.
3) Chop the coriander and prepare the rest of the ingredients.
4) Assemble the salad!

This is a salad of robust flavours - from the peanutty taste of quinoa to vinegary plum. The blue pea flowers balances this out a bit. Best eaten with milder-tasting roasted meats.

Blue Pea Flower Quinoa Salad

That ends our edible flowers Link-Up event for Little Thumbs Up. We hope you enjoyed the edible flower series as much as we did! Thank you for joining us, be it by linking up, commenting or just dropping by our web page for a read.

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This post is linked to Little Thumbs Up - Feb 2016 which is organised by Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids and Doreen from My Little Favourite DIY, and hosted by Sweet Home-Chefs.