Sometimes it takes me 45 minutes before I’m intriguted enough by a recipe to feel ready to head to the farmers’ market. A few Saturdays ago, as I began my market-morning ritual of flipping through our cookbooks, I found inspiration immediately. While thumbing through my well-loved copy of Plenty, I paused on a photo of quinoa tossed with fava beans, easter egg radishes, and avocado. After my last quinoa salad, I’ve become much more inclined to linger on recipes that feature quinoa, thanks to its quick cooking time and easy adaptability.

At the market, we filled our bags with favas, radishes, zucchini, potatoes, strawberries, and asparagus. After a week’s worth of travel, we both craved home-cooked food and all that comes with it: prepping, washing, grilling, and eating outside. So, once home, we quickly decided to spend our Saturday cooking.

While Justin grilled zucchini and tossed potatoes with homemade mayonnaise, I gathered the components for this quinoa dish. Because quinoa cooks in about 10 minutes, I simmered it first before setting it aside to cool. The fava beans monopolize the bulk of the preparation time – though early season fava beans are much less work than their later season siblings. Their total cooking time is a little over 1 minute, and a quick dip in ice water easily releases their translucent white coverings.

The salad is enhanced with fatty avocado, lemon, and garlic, and was assembled just as Justin put the finishing touches on the other two dishes. We dined outside on our trio of salads, before heading back to the kitchen to wash up and bake a serving of strawberry drop biscuits!