Spring Pea Bowl with Radish, Quinoa, Mint, and Almonds

Summary

This recipe from The Little Beet is packed full of fresh spring goodness: delicate greens, two kinds of peak-season peas, creamy avocado, and crisp radishes—plus quinoa to fill you up, and roasted garlic, lemon juice, mint, and toasted almonds for layers of flavor. You can experiment when it comes to garnishes for this bowl; try adding slivers of pickled red onions or beets, or use different toasted nuts, like pistachios. And rather than simple slices of avocado, try spring-inspired guacamole as a topping: add fresh sweet peas to the mashed avocado itself, with fresh mint instead of the usual cilantro, or try our Toasted Almond Guacamole with Apricots recipe. You can also scale this up to feed more people if you wish, but the amounts given make for a generous lunch or light dinner for one.

Do Ahead: You can roast garlic and cook quinoa specifically for this recipe, but it’s also a really great way to use up leftovers of both from another meal. See this guide to cooking quinoa if you’re new to it. For roasted garlic, simply cut the top off a whole head of garlic to expose most of the cloves inside, drizzle it with a little olive oil, wrap it in foil, and roast it in a 425 degree oven for at least half an hour. It’s not a bad idea to get in the habit of doing this whenever you’re using the oven for something else; then you can pop out a few soft, sticky-sweet cloves of garlic at a time to use in salad dressings or sauces, spread on toasted bread, or mash into mayonnaise throughout the week.

The More You Know: Ever wondered what’s the difference between snow peas, snap peas, and English peas? Click here to find out.