Bourbon Soaked Nectarine & Rhubarb Salad

Oh but there is more, it has roasted beets, quinoa and a homemade zesty lime dressing!

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I absolutely love the taste of roasted or grilled fruit and its amazing just how many fruit you can roast or grill and they take on a whole new flavour and life! These nectarines were no different... except.. well.. I soaked them in bourbon first. Also an amazing flavour bomb let me tell you! The Rhubarb added a nice punch too!... so I guess I can't say enough about this salad.

To start I cut up 4 nectarines into quarters, while I also cut the rhubarb into 1 inch long stalks. I soaked these in bourbon for approximately 3 hours, tossing them every 20-30 minutes to ensure the bourbon was evenly distributed.

The rhubarb was from my garden! and Superstore just got a shipment of organic nectarines, so win win there! I then set out to cook some quinoa. There are a lot of options and for those that do not like microwaves you will cringe at me, but! whatever I can do in cooking, where I can set something into motion and I don't have to look at it again until it's done... is the technique I use. I love to cook, but I like making it easy on myself also... life is too short. I placed 1 cup of organic quinoa in a microwave safe dish with 2 cups of water and a splash of oil. I put the lid on and put it in the microwave for 2o minutes and voila! done!

I also cut up 2 golden beets.. you can use red but I was concerned they would bleed into the quinoa so I opted for golden! I cut these up (I'm partial to leaving their skin on when roasting) and placed these in the oven at 375 degrees to roast. I added a bit of salt and garlic and a drizzle of oil before hand.

I also baked the nectarines and rhubarb at the same time as the beets, the aroma in my kitchen was epic!

I cut up some romaine lettuce for the base and once the quinoa was cooled I placed it on top. Do not do this with hot quinoa unless you want to create a wilted salad dish.

Now for the dressing.... This was a mayonnaise based dressing, 1 cup to be precise and I added a Tbsp of lime juice and a generous sprinkle of dill. Stir this up, if it's too thick add some more lime juice and dill. Toss this directly into the salad when you are ready to serve! This is healthy and flavourful... this is 100% the salad you want to be bringing to a potluck!

The Recipe:

Cut up 4 nectarines and 2-3 stalks of rhubarb and soak in bourbon. You want to soak these for at least 3 hours if not a full day to really gain the flavour from the bourbon.

Cut up some golden beets and roast in an oven at 375 degrees for about 25-30 minutes. Roast the nectarines and rhubarb at the same time.

Place 1 cup of quinoa in a microwave safe dish with 2 cups of water and cook for 20 minutes.

Cut up one head of romaine in a bowl and layer with the quinoa nectarine, mix the beets.

The dressing is 1 cup of mayonnaise with 1 Tbsp of lime juice and a generous sprinkle of dill and mix.

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