Herby Quinoa and Plum Salad

Quinoa is a nutty flavoured seed from the South American Andes and it has been used for over 6000 years. I use quinoa in this recipe, but it can easily be replaced by bulgur wheat or couscous. The herbs, plums and dressing in this fresh and healthy salad go really well together.

Serves 4:

Salad:

- 250 g quinoa

- 2 cups water

- 1 small onion, finely chopped

- 1 garlic clove, finely chopped

- 3 tbsp olive oil

- 6 tbsp lemon juice

- handful of parsley, finely chopped
- handful of mint, finely chopped

- 10 plums, depitted and cut in 4

- salt

- pepper

Yoghurt dressing:

- 150 ml yoghurt

- squeeze of ketchup

- chives, finely chopped
- 1 small clove of garlic, finely chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder 

Soak the quinoa for about an hour and resoak or rinse it very well under running water while rubbing it with your fingers to get rid of the natural bitter soapy coating (saponin). Drain. 
In a pan with the water bring it to a boil, cover with a lid and simmer for 12-15 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to sit for 5 minutes with the lid still on. Fluff with a fork and let cool for 30 minutes, then transfer to a salad bowl.
Mix in the onion, garlic, parsley, mint, oil and lemon juice.
Season with salt and pepper.
Add the plum wedges and refrigerate for at least half an hour.
Mix the ingredients for the yoghurt dressing in a small bowl.
Serve the salad piled up on a big serving plate with the dressing in a little bowl on the side.

White Asparagus with ham, egg and new potatoes

This dish is one of my all time favorites. Although it is not so much a recipe, more a combination of cooked items, it is definitely a great combination! In the Netherlands the season for Dutch white asparagus is starting soon (the season is roughly from half of April until half of June). I found them here in South Africa once or twice in November, but I have no idea where they came from. Anyway, they looked delicious and of course I had to prepare them our traditional way.

Serves 4:

- 1,5 kg white asparagus (thickest you can find!)

- 1 tsp sugar
- 6 eggs
- 400 g ham
- 1,5 kg new/baby potatoes, skin on
- a stick of butter, don't be shy
- salt 
- (grated nutmeg)

Ok, this is very easy. Peel the asparagus (with a special peeler), holding them flat on a cutting board (be careful not to break them) and cut about 1 cm off the end. Boil the strips of peel and the ends for 15 minutes in a pan with a liter of water with a bit of sugar and salt. Keep the asparagus in a bowl of cold water until needed.
Discard peel and ends, keep the liquid to boil the asparagus in.
Boil asparagus for 5 minutes in the asparagus liquid, remove from fire and leave them with the lid on the pan for about 15 to 20 minutes.
In the mean time, boil the potatoes in their skin for about 20 minutes, boil the eggs for 8 minutes, melt the butter on low heat in a pan and arrange cold ham slices in rolls on a plate.
Peel the eggs and arrange them on the plate with the ham.
Drain the asparagus and lay them on a plate with a cotton kitchen towel.
Serve with the potatoes, butter, salt and freshly grated nutmeg.