What does cooking have to do with LEGO you’d say. After all, when you step on a slice of pizza, it doesn’t hurt as much as stepping on a LEGO brick! But truth be told, the two share many similarities, because building a dish can be as modular as building a LEGO model. In fact, I would argue that both follow a simple 4-step process and both allow for unlimited variations.

Step 1: The Model – Have an end-goal in mind

Before you start playing with LEGO you have an idea of what you want to build – e.g. a house, a plane or a car. Similarly, before you start cooking you need to know what kind of dish you want to cook. Would it be a pizza, pasta or just a simple salad? In our example, we’ve chosen a salad. Step one is completed, moving on.

Step 2: The Base – Start with something you crave

In order to build a solid model, you’ll have to set the foundations properly. When you cook, picking the right base ingredient(s) is equally important and will determine the composition of your dish.

You can use pretty much any ingredient as a base. I would recommend choosing an ingredient that is in season at the moment, because it is easier to get a fresh, local produce at a decent price.

Step 3: The brick-set – Choose elements that fit together

Here comes the fun part. Once you’ve set-up your base, it’s time to choose which bricks to use in order to complete your masterpiece. When cooking, you want to add ingredients that work well with the chosen dish type and your base ingredient. Don’t worry if you are unsure about which ingredients go well together. Even some of the best chefs have limited knowledge on that. Instead, you can use Plant Jammer’s free web app that enables you to discover matching ingredients and build your own recipes.

For our dish, we’ve added: edamame, quinoa, some oil and vinegar, ginger, mint and sesame seeds.

Step 4: The building instructions – Do the right things in the right order

Now that you have all elements you need, it’s time to play. LEGO is all about improvisation, yet if you want to build your model so it looks like on the picture, you might cheat by looking at the instruction sheet. In the realm of cooking, if you are a pro in the kitchen you know how to process each ingredient to get the most out of the flavor. If you are still learning you might use some help, especially on how to apply heat and in which sequence to add the chosen ingredients.

That’s it! You’ve created a unique dish piece by piece – Just like playing with LEGO.

Your turn to play!

Print Recipe

Quinoa Salad with Mango and Ginger

Course

Main Dish

Prep Time

10 minutes

Cook Time

15 minutes

Servings

people

Ingredients

• 1 cup quinoa
• 1 1/2 cup edamame
• 1 fruit mango
• 1 inch gigner
• 1/4 cup mint leaves
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1 tbs rice wine vinegar substitute with any white vineger
• 1 tbs sesame seeds

Course Main Dish Prep Time 10 minutes Cook Time 15 minutes Servings people Ingredients 1 cup quinoa 1 1/2 cup edamame 1 fruit mango 1 inch gigner 1/4 cup mint leaves 2 tbs olive oil 1 tbs rice wine vinegar substitute with any white vineger 1 tbs sesame seeds

Instructions

1. Wash the mint
2. Peel and cut the mango and ginger
3. Boil the Quinoa in salty water (ratio 2:1) for 15 min or until transparent
4. Bring salted water to boil. Steam edamame for 5 min or until tender
5. Toast sesame seeds in a hot and dry pan
6. Mix vinegar, olive oil, and ginger with salt and pepper
7. Mix all ingredients together

Recipe Notes

Note: Don't live your life by a recipe. Consider the ingredient quantities in the recipe box as recommendations. Feel free to jam and adjust according to your taste 🙂

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