April is my birth month. Perhaps that I why I have such an affinity for what grows now: asparagus, sugar snap, and English, peas, bitter greens such as dandelion, nettles and lemony sorrel. Feel free to add any of them to this dish.

When I first tasted quinoa, more than 20 years ago now, I fell for it- hard. There were few recipes that stood up to my idea of perfect quinoa so I set to work perfecting my recipe.

My quinoa cooking method on the stove top is 1 cup quinoa, 1 ¾ cups liquid, 12 minutes on the heat and 5 minutes off the heat. I have shown thousands of people how to cook quinoa, on both the stove top and in the pressure cooker. Watch me cook quinoa in the stove top pressure cooker. (It works the same in the Instant Pot or other electric pressure cooker).

Here are the directions for pressure cooking quinoa. I resisted doing this for years because quinoa already cooks so quickly. Yet, cutting the cooking time by more than half is quite useful. Cook 1 cup quinoa, 1 ¼ cups liquid, 5 minutes at high pressure with a natural pressure release. Additionally, you save at least 50% on your energy usage which is so environmentally friendly which means a lot in the month of Earth Day (but isn’t each day an earth day?).

No matter how I cook it, quinoa is a staple in my house and my go-to gluten-free grain. I especially like to mix the white (also called ivory) and red quinoa but in this recipe since the saffron colors the quinoa, it’s better to use the white which provides better visual contrast with the green vegetables. The lemon zest and juice add great fresh flavor and wonderful antioxidant and anticancer properties. Don’t ever mention that this dish might actually be good for you.