Bulgur, Quinoa, Kale Salad with Lemon-Tarragon Dressing

It's funny, I love salads, I could eat them every single day - if someone else made them for me.  For some reason, I just get soooo lazy about making them myself.  I've made a good winter bulgur salad, and now this is my summer version.  I say it's summer because there was a zucchini in there.  😊 This was a mishmash of fridge/pantry contents and a notion from my brain...

• 1/2 cup bulgur wheat
• 1/2 cup organic quinoa
• 2 cups organic low sodium "Better than Bouillon" vegetable stock
• 2 large shallots, halved then sliced as thinly as possible & coarsely chopped
• Few stalks of local curly kale, stripped from stems, cut julienne
• 100 grams slivered almonds, toasted
• 100 grams pecans, lightly crushed with mallet in Ziploc and toasted
• 1/2 cup dried apricots, fine dice
• 1/2 cup dried sweetened tart cherries, fine dice
• 1/2 cup organic Thompson raisins
• 2 small local zucchini, small dice
• 1 large carrot, grated
• 300 grams goat cheese, crumbled
• Fresh cracked pepper and kosher salt, to taste

I made the bulgur and quinoa the night before.  That way I could let it cool naturally and you want to cool it first.  Both grains had the same package directions, so I cooked them together in the vegetable stock with some pepper.

I fluffed with a fork and then put in the fridge.  I had a taste, and I was happy already.  I liked that combo and the veggie stock made a great flavor. 

The wash and chop fest was next and I just added the ingredients one by one to a large salad bowl.  Below was the apricots, and then the dice on them.

Zucchini dice below:

Shallots and chop next:

I toasted the nuts last then let them cool.  Below was untoasted.

I mixed it all with the vinaigrette.  Below was the "big toss/mix up"

This took me a while to assemble, but I thought it turned out really well.  If it was just for us, I would have used a jalapeno pepper, but because I promised this to co-workers too and didn't ask, I left it out.

The goat cheese was the star, really for me.  There was nice texture balance as well as a flavor roller coaster - salty, sweet, nutty and tangy, just missing heat. However there was crunchy, creamy and soft and I loved the lemon and tarragon.  We were full!  Lot of bang for the buck here.  I'm happy with this healthy meal, even if it took me a couple of hours to prepare through watching  "The Bachelorette" finale, lol, and no comments on that...