{Sunday Lunch} Fava and Quinoa Salad and a Plum, Oat and Rosemary Crisp

Weekend meals in our house are a bit of a hodgepodge of sorts. I play around with food, C. likes to experiment with the smoker, I bake all sorts of sweets… So I would say we graze all day long and maybe have one decent, sit down meal, which is usually breakfast.

I grew up in a family where all our activities revolved around our meal times. Lunch was always served at 1:30pm during the week and 2:30pm on the weekends. Even to this day, if I call my parents at that time and they are not home, my internal alarm immediately goes off wondering if something has happened. There is something very comforting about that and that’s perhaps why I crave routine so much.

I think it’s clear I love to cook, especially I love to cook for my family. I feel incredibly lucky to be able to work from home and to have a flexible schedule so I can always fit our dinnertime together. I am very passionate about what I feed my children, but above all, I love the task itself. I love peeling, sauteeing, dressing, roasting, dicing, icing… I love the action that happens in the kitchen. The smells and sounds that come out of it.

But weekends are different… On weekends, I like to feel no obligation to have lunch on the table at a certain time or to have to rush home to prepare dinner. I just want to play around and have fun.

So early this morning, when I had barely finished cleaning our breakfast dishes, I got back in the kitchen and started cooking our lunch. C. took our little boy out for some errands and M. napped peacefully. I sat at the dining room table and started patiently peeling the bag of fava beans I got at the market yesterday. Brought back memories of my dad snapping and cutting flat green beans for my mom. Put me in a trance.

I quickly blanched the favas in salted, boiling water and made a salad with red quinoa, the fava beans, shallots and a soft boiled egg. All dressed very simply with salt, balsamic vinegar, olive oil and some mini purple basil leaves.

For dessert, we had a gluten-free plum, oat and rosemary crisp. I know it might seem odd to add rosemary to a crisp, but believe me, it worked. The lemon zest and the rosemary complimented the sweet and slightly acidic fruit very, very well. Even J. agreed. I snapped these photos in a pinch while the skies were threatening rain. I can see the grayness in them. I like it.

And tell me, what did you cook this weekend?

Gluten-Free Plum, Oat and Rosemary Crisp

3 lbs sliced plums
2/3 cups palm sugar or cane sugar
3 Tbs plus 1 tsp cornstarch
1 vanilla bean, scraped
Juice of 1 lemon
pinch of salt

1/2 cup superfine brown rice flour
1/4 cup gluten-free oat flour
1/2 cup gluten-free rolled oats
1/2 cup palm sugar
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 Tbs finely chopped rosemary
Zest of 1 lemon
1/2 cup melted butter

Toss together the sliced plums, cornstarch, lemon juice, sugar, vanilla bean and salt. Transfer to a 10″ round baking dish.

In a bowl, whisk together the flours, oats, sugar, sea salt, rosemary and lemon zest. Add the melted butter and fold with a spatula until all the dry ingredients are moist with the butter. Crumble it on top of the fruit.

Bake at 350F until golden and filling starts to bubble. About 45 minutes. If the topping starts to get too dark, cover with a sheet of aluminum foil or parchment paper.