PLENTY
NOVEMBER 20 2012
TWENTY-SEVEN : QUINOA SALAD W/ DRIED PERSIAN LIME
It is extremely dangerous for me to shop at Barbur World Foods. I go in to buy bread and come out with za'atar or preserved lemon or aleppo pepper. And I usually have no plan or even idea of how to use these items. In fact, these dried Persian limes have been sitting in my cupboard for years, completely untouched. Until now!
I was thrilled to find that one of Mr. O's recipes features dried Persian limes and I can't wait to use them. He is right in saying that turning these suckers into powder is "difficult to achieve because the limes are rock hard". As I'm breaking them into pieces to stuff into the coffee/spice grinder, I actually give myself a "dried-lime cut"... which is worse than a paper cut because the edges are all jagged and tangy. But it will all be worth it!
Now comes some sweet potato vs yam confusion. I bought said sweet potatoes which, once peeled, reveal themselves to be basically white. But Mr O's photos show a dark orange vegetable tossed in the salad. I think he used yams! Or different, orange-colored sweet potatoes? Aaaah... I'm so confused! The orange ones would look prettier... but I think they basically taste the same so oh well.
It's a pretty good salad. The dried lime powder ads a nice floral note and complements the earthy quinoa. Not sure why it has rice and quinoa... but still tasty! I'll have to research some more ways to use those dried limes cause I've still got most of the bag left.
