Photo Styling: Quinoa Berry Fruit Salad

Hard to believe I am posting a fruit salad, since I never post fruit.

If you know me, you know I don't eat fruit.
I do have mad love for cherries and figs, and maybe an apple in the fall, but I rarely eat fruit!

Weird, I know, I buy berries only to bake with.

This fruit salad was a happy accident.

I was photo styling some beautiful tableware for a home furnishings shop in my town, and created a recipe to showcase the dishes, placemats, napkins and accessories.

It's summer and it's hot, so why not a refreshing farmer's market fruit salad for a change? I had the cooked quinoa already made.......my brain was working.

I put all these beautiful berries on the plate with the quinoa and herbs, and it just worked, it actually looked good enough to eat!

I would normally toss the food that I made for a photo shoot, since it was sitting out for a while (taking photos and replating, etc). But here, I was hungry, it was lunchtime, so I decided to take a bite, how could a little fruit salad hurt me? There were no glow in the dark cherries or syrupy gross peaches from a can.

It was so good, I had another bite and another. And I liked it.
No, I LOVED it.

This is my new favorite thing. Try it with some yogurt too.

You can use any berry combo, but make sure you use the diced peaches......it adds such a nice texture and flavor to the berries

It's so good.

Here's how I made it: (use equal amounts of fruit and quinoa)

cooked cooled quinoa
the freshest raspberries
the freshest blackberries or strawberries
fresh figs, quartered
the freshest blueberries
fresh diced peaches
zest of a lemon
cold balsamic SYRUP to drizzle
fresh mint leaves
lavender flowers if you have them!

Lightly toss your berries with the cooled, cooked quinoa and the zest of a lemon.

Drizzle with cold balsamic syrup (which is balsamic vinegar that has been reduced and thick).

Garnish with mint leaves and lavender.

Feta cheese or yogurt would also be a nice pairing.

I might secretly become a fruit lover.

And that my friends, is the story of a fruit salad.

All these beautiful accessories are available at A.Home in Summit, NJ. Click on the link.