Quinoa Salad with Mushrooms, Sausage, and Arugula

For months I had been hearing a good friend rave about this salad. A mutual friend had whipped it up for her last summer, and while we had promised to make it there just wasn't time during the insanity of graduation. It sounded pretty ideal--healthy quinoa, spicy arugula, and the best meat of all time? What could be better? So for the first dinner I cooked at home, I knew I had to try it out. 



I added mushrooms because mushrooms should be added to just about everything...plus the creminis totally tricked me into buying them. "Hey, I'm a fun guy!" (Get it?!) Oh yeah, get used to a lot of food puns. Learn to love it.


Anyway.


I think this salad would look prettier with white quinoa so that the pretty colors of the mushrooms and arugula would contrast better, but red was all I had on hand. Enough regrets--let's do this thing!

Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman, is one of my inspirations. I love when she does a "Cast of Characters" of all the ingredients in a recipe. Since I am nowhere near her level of awesomeness (or experience), this is an incomplete cast of characters. The others are probably still in their pajamas. Wake up, sleepy ingredients!!! You'll need quinoa, water, chicken broth, olive oil, onion, mushrooms, garlic, garlic powder, soy sauce, and sausage.

Slice up those tasty creminis. For you food sleuths (I know you're there!), please forgive the sliced appearance of these onions. It's because they're sliced. I found that they became weird stringy things with quinoa stuck to them in the final dish, which is why the recipe asks you to chop them. Learn from my mistakes!

Sauté up those onions! Yours will be chopped because you're awesome.

Having added the mushrooms, it's time for an action shot! Yay for multitasking!

When things start to get yummy and brown, all on in that chopped garlic. 

The quinoa is done when that little white part, known as the germ, is visible. Did you know that quinoa is actually a bunch of seeds? So is rice! And beans! Maybe after you make this and marvel at how darn good seeds taste, you'll mosey on over to the Longfood section and read my article on seeds. So meta. 

Add those sautéed veggies. Now is when you'll also want to add the garlic powder, soy sauce, and salt and pepper to taste.

Ready to eat? Throw in that arugula...

And cover it with warm quinoa until it wilts slightly.

  Serve immediately with the cooked sausage. Isn't it funny how you can see the shadow of my hands taking a picture? Yeah, I'm professional. Enjoy, friends!




Quinoa Salad with Mushrooms, Sausage, and Arugula

• 1 cup quinoa
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1/2 lb cremini mushrooms, sliced 
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 pinch garlic powder
• 1 1/2 tsp soy sauce
• 5 oz arugula (about one container) 
• 1 1/2 lbs sweet Italian sausage with fennel 

1. Bring water and chicken stock to a boil. 
2. Add quinoa. Cover and cook on medium-high for 15 minutes, or until the white germ of the grain starts to appear.
3. While quinoa cooks, sauté onion in olive oil in a separate pan over medium-high heat until browned, about 10 minutes.
4. Add mushrooms and garlic. Sauté until the garlic is fragrant, about 4 minutes. 
5. When quinoa is done, add the the onion/mushroom/garlic mixture, garlic powder, and soy sauce. Salt and pepper to taste, then set aside.
6. In the onion/mushroom/garlic pan, cook sausages until browned and cooked through. 
7. When ready to serve, fold arugula into warm quinoa until it begins to wilt. Serve sausages atop quinoa.