Quinoa salad of creamed leek, poached chicken and roasted corn!

(serves 6)

Being asked to cook for an event is always an honour, and this particular occasion was a baby shower for the first baby in our group ~ due in just less than a month, super exciting!! :) This dish was inspired by a memorable meal at Youeni's, Castle Hill, an organic food store and cafe. I'm not usually too fussed about getting organic, but i have to say that all three items we ordered were great ~ i don't doubt there's something to just having better quality ingredients! 

Anyhow, i endeavoured to turn this main dish into a salad with some success though a bit more thought needed to go into the dressing... the idea was that the creamy leek sauce would give flavour to the poached chicken, with a good splash of crunchy roasted corn and asparagus! Pretty good combo, but just needed to make a bit more leek sauce to dress the salad leaves and it would've been perfect!

Prep time: 1 hr (including poaching chicken)

Cooking time: 20min

Still loving my cute new shopping bag!

Ingredients:

2 chicken marylands

1 punnet grape tomatoes

6 cobs of corn

2 bunches asparagus

3 leeks

1 C chicken stock

500mL light cream

300g baby spinach

1 1/2 C quinoa

3 C water

Method:

1. Poach the chicken for 30-45min until cooked through. Cool and shred.

2. Meanwhile, julienne the leeks with a couple of pinches of salt. Sauté on low-medium heat with the butter until soft and limp. Add the chicken stock and cook until absorbed. Add the cream and stir slowly until thickened. Mix the shredded chicken into the leek.

3. Cook the quinoa in water for 13-15min until all the water is absorbed. Leave it to dry out off the heat and cool.

4. Spray the corn with oil then roast under the grill (or on a BBQ if you have one!) turning approximately every 5min so it doesn't burn. After 15min, add butter and salt and continue cooking for another 5-10min until cooked. Use a knife and cut the kernels off.

5. Cut 2-3cm off the stalk of the asparagus, then cut into 3cm lengths. Dress with olive oil, salt and pepper and grill on the sandwich press until softened.

5. Toss the spinach, quinoa and half of the corn together and dress with olive oil, salt and pepper.

6. Add the asparagus into the leek and chicken mixture and coat with creamy sauce, saving some asparagus spears for garnish. Combine the 2 bowls and toss well!

Spinach, corn and quinoa in one bowl, then creamy leek, chicken and asparagus in the other - then combine!

7. Serve with grape tomatoes and remaining corn and asparagus spears on top. 

Meanwhile, Paul my super-talented French-pastry-making finaceé spent all morning making some super delicious pear danishes! So delicious but so not healthy... but a good portion of fruit in them at least :)