Red Quinoa With Beets, Avocado & Pistachios

16 baby red beets, trimmed
2 Tbs sherry vinegar, divided
1 cup red quinoa
4 Tbs olive oil, divided
1 medium avocado
2 tsp chopped tarragon
2 tsp minced shallot
2 Tbs lime juice
1 Tbs lime zest
1 cup wild arugula leaves
2 Tbs chopped pistachio nuts
grapefruit slices for garnish, optional

1) Preheat oven to 350F. Place beets, 1 Tbs sherry vinegar and 1 cup water in large baking dish. Season with salt, if desired, and bake 1 hour, or until beets are tender. Cool, then peel and quarter.
2) Bring quinoa and 2 1/2 cups water to a boil in medium saucepan. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook 20 minutes, or until quinoa is tender and water is absorbed. Drain and cool. Toss with 1 1/2 Tbs oil.
3) Mash avocado with tarragon, shallot, 1 Tbs oil, lime juice and lime zest. Season with salt and pepper, if desired.
4) Toss beets in remaining 1 1/2 Tbs oil and remaining 1 Tbs vinegar. Season with salt and pepper, if desired.
5) Divide arugula, beets, quinoa and avocado mixture among serving plates. Sprinkle with pistachios, and garnish with grapefruit, if using.

Review: This required lots of tweaking. There is no red quinoa in Pocatello. Beets are only available in bunches of four, with greens attached for $1.99 a bunch. Therefore, we used canned (not pickled) beets, which shaved some cooking time. Sherry vinegar doesn't exist in these parts, either, so I used sherry. I ended up sauteeing the beets in the sherry, just to warm them up and add some flavor. I mixed the avocado mix with the quinoa (once it was done cooking). I then layered the dish, topping with pistachios that I was too lazy to chop. Sadly, this dish didn't win us over. It was edible, but not anything I'd want to make again. I have a feeling it would have a different taste if we'd used baby beets, but I doubt anyone can obtain those without growing them at home. Eh, at least I got to use my onion goggles again. :)