This recipe comes from the ATK Just Add Sauce cookbook…the star of the show, naturally, is the tahini sauce.
It’s actually a farro dish that I tweaked to make gluten free using quinoa instead. And then to make it a more caloric meal, I added chicken.
Tahini phase still in full effect 🙂
I forgot to take the chicken out in time to thaw completely so it was still half frozen when I was ready to prep dinner. No matter thanks to the instant pot. I just added it as is, poured in 1/4 cup water plus a pinch of salt and let it pressure cook while I moved on to the next thing on my checklist. When it was done, it shredded in seconds. The best part about making in the IP though, was all the beautiful broth it yielded! I planned ahead for this very broth because two days later I had plans for it in the form of “mustard pan sauce” (also from the Just Add Sauce cookbook). I made it right there in the IP after taking the chicken out with the saute function!
Thereby cutting down my prep for this dinner by a half or more!
Anyway, back to the quinoa dish.
I managed to remember the slivered almonds and mint juuuust before serving. Phew! I seriously forget herb and nut garnishes in 50% of the meals I serve the family. What is wrong with me!!!
It had grapes, goat feta, mint, and almonds 🙂
The tahini sauce was everything. Glad I doubled it 😉
The next night was farmer’s market, but I packed us salads because none of the market fare was too tempting last week. Kyle and I decided Wednesdays would be our free night (for me not cooking) but that didn’t have to mean buying food at market. We could bring Nugget prepared food or Guadalajara takeaway or whatever else we were in the moods for.
Well this day I was in the mood for a salad. And Kyle looooves when I make him “Elise salads” (he tries to get me to open a stand at farmer’s market selling my food every year!) so I knew he’d be on board.
This salad was H U G E. Too big if I’m bring honest. I was so full the rest of the night I didn’t even have room for kombucha. I hate hate hate to say this, BUT I think half an avo is getting to be too much fat for my body to digest in one sitting. 🙁 It pains me to admit this. The avo I split between us was ginormous, so that didn’t help, but even so…the combo of the dressing and nuts and avo and all that veggie volume was just too too much. Oops.
Something is up with my gut lately and I am really not a fan. Ok, so now back to that second chicken dish…
This doesn’t look super attractive as far as chicken goes, but it was really really good, I promise. First, I pounded the breasts out (using this method) until they were uniformly pancaked. Then I sautéed them in the sauce I had already made. Easy as that!
Served with snap peas (also cooked in the sauce) and wild rice.
A whole cookbook on sauces sounds totally genius. I make a lot of tahini miso salad dressing but i can always use more ideas how to use it- i buy it at trader joe’s since it’s way cheaper there and actually better than other more expensive brands. (Well, Soom tahini really is worth every cent.)
Those salads do look big and fabulous! Hopefully just a little less avocado helps with the tummy, such a bummer that made you miserable. (And of course kyle is right you need a day off from cooking every week!)