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I applaud all you green thumb gardening experts, I’m envious, yet baffled by your successes. This is the second year in a row Kevin and I have tried our hand at growing some veggies in our backyard, and while we’ve had much more success with our cherry tomatoes as of late, our heirloom and beefsteak variety has generated only marginally more success than last year.
In fact, we can’t stop the cherry tomatoes from growing, once we pick a handful, ten more pop up, and these guys are not your average cherry tomato, they are enormous. I’m convinced they’re actually a hybrid between a normal tomato, and a cherry – or maybe I’ve just never seen what an actual cherry tomato looks like with all the mass-produced, over-priced ones you find at the grocery store.
Regardless, there’s nothing that makes me giddier than when Kevin points out another bunch of the little guys growing almost overnight. It’s crazy to think that we’ve actually grown something we can eat in our own backyard. Well, I guess if we’re technically speaking, Kevin actually planted and nurtured them, but I supervised, so that totally counts, right? Oh, and I also water from time to time.
At first I was afraid our success was going to be short-lived, so I was hoarding the little guys as if I needed to ration them off every day for my sole source of sustenance – thankfully, I’ve since realized they are not going to stop growing anytime soon. This has freed them up to pop in my mouth for a snack as I please, serve them up as an app with some bocconcini (tiny mozzarella balls) and most recently, as a pop of red in this quinoa and lobster salad.
Of course the foundation of the salad started with leftover lobster from this dinner we had the other night. Apparently it’s rather difficult for two people to finish four pounds of lobster and not burst – thank goodness for that, because this salad would never have transpired had we finished those feisty little suckers.
I love this, not only because it’s delicious, but it’s also an updated version of a summer classic – corn and tomato salad. And while the traditional salad would normally just serve as a side to a bigger protein, the addition of quinoa and lobster make this salad boast enough heartiness to suffice for your main meal.
We had leftover lobster already on hand, but in your case, I’d recommend getting two to three lobster tails, and grilling them along with the corn. You could over course, boil them both, but since there aren’t many ingredients, you want each and every single component to be as flavorful as possible, and the grill will be the best instrument to facilitate that. Plus, it’s summer, you should get out there and grill!
Once the lobster and corn are cooked, they’re tossed with halved cherry tomatoes and some pre-cooked quinoa and then dressed with a super light (and bright!) lime vinaigrette. Add a nice, crisp class of rosé and this perfect summer dinner is done.
- 1 cup cooked quinoa
- 2 large lobster tails
- Olive oil for cooking
- 2 ears of corn
- 10 cherry tomatoes, halved
- ½ cup crumbled feta
- Dressing:
- Juice from 2 limes
- 2 teaspoons honey
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup olive oil
- Heat your grill to a medium heat. Split lobster tails in half length-wise. Using a metal or wooden skewer soaked in water, skewer the lobster tails so they don't curl when grilling. Brush meat with olive and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Grill, flesh side down for five minutes, or until the flesh is easily released from the grates. Flip over and cook another 3-4 minutes until meat is cooked through. At the same time the lobster is grilling, grill corn on indirect heat for 10-15 minutes, turning occasionally.
- Once the lobster and corn are done, remove the meat from the shells and cut into bite-sized chunks. Cut corn from cob.
- In a small bowl, whisk together all ingredients for dressing. Slowly whisk in olive oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- In a large bowl, toss quinoa, lobster, corn, tomatoes and feta together. Toss with dressing. Serve immediately.
- If you want to make this ahead, just don't dress the salad until ready to serve.
Taylor @ Food Faith Fitness says
Yay for quinoa salads!! I am loving all of these ingredients lady! I also can’t garden to save my life…I have a black thumb. I just kill things. Pinned!
Michele says
This looks so healthy. But soooo pretty!!
Karen @ The Food Charlatan says
Okay I’m totally laughing over you hoarding your cherry tomatoes!! Ha! And we’re in the same boat over here. This is our first year planting, ALL we have are 3 tomatoes and all of them have brown spots on the bottom 🙁 we read up on it and it sounds like a calcium deficiency so after trying to pour milk on them with no success (omg I’m kidding) we read that adding some epsom salt to the soil prevents the spots. We shall see! Good luck with all your billion cherry tomatoes! PS this looks amazing and makes me think maybe I should try to like lobster…don’t hate me.
Ashley says
So promise we can still be friends but I totally refuse to eat lobster! haha It just is soooo not my thing. Texture issue I think. My husband thinks I’m nuts 🙂 But the rest of this salad I’d be alllll over!
haha and your garden story made me laugh. The hubs planted all our plants as well … but I water them so they’re totally all mine right?? Don’t worry I share 🙂
Gina says
What an extravagant quinoa salad – I’m gonna do this to stretch my lobster tails next time I get them! As for the tomatoes, I’ll leave the growing to our local farmer’s market vendors, they seem to have it down very well 😉
Nicole says
That’s exactly what I did!! Ha! They do, I just rarely find the time to go out there, which is so sad!
Thalia @ butter and brioche says
now this is a decadent looking salad.. love lobster! definitely will be saving the recipe to recreate in my kitchen!
Nicole says
Thanks Thalia!
Sarah @ Running On Brie says
This salad looks divine! Nothing better than home grown cherry tomatoes- they’re like candy. And I say if you’re the one watering them- you should get all the credit!
Jennie @themessybakerblog says
Girl, this looks wicked tasty. Okay, so, the garden. It’s a fickle beast sometimes. Squirrel and I are on our second year and still learning. Since I’m a total nerd, I’m keeping a gardening journal. It really helps us keep track of what’s working and what’s not. Last year our garden blew the big one. Everything died and wilted. We figured out that it was our clay-like dirt. This year we went to our local dump and brought home free compost dirt. We tilled that dirt in with the clay, added peat moss, and an organic fertilizer. Viola, we have growth. Sorry for such a long post. I have no doubt that you and Kevin will become top-notch gardeners.
Justine@CookingandBeer says
I love this lobster kick that you are on!! I’m salivating just looking at your photos! I’m totally with you on the gardening thing, but I totally think you should keep at it! Pinning this asap! Yum!
Christin@SpicySouthernKitchen says
What an amazing salad! I never cook lobster but this looks like a totally fantastic summer meal!