Tag Archives: quinoa

Quinoa Crunch Salad

24 Apr

I know you are all shocked that I am posting a quinoa recipe, seeing as how every 5th post on this blog seems to be a quinoa dish.  I am nothing if not frugal and practical, and you just can not beat the cost of quinoa and the short cook time.  Plus, it tastes good.

I am also nothing if not way behind on laundry and housekeeping, but that’s for another post.  (while ‘then get off the computer and clean your house woman’ would be good advice, I’m not listening.  {fingers in ear, chanting ‘la la la la’}).

I make this salad a couple of times a month.  It keeps well for 3-4 days in the fridge, although it usually only lasts a couple of days in our (messy) house, since the husband and I both like it.

Quinoa Crunch Salad

A salad with lots of natural crunch and a tangy dressing.  It’s strangely addicting – try to eat only one bit.

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups cooked quinoa
  • 1/3 cup roughly chopped almonds
  • 1/2 cup chopped carrots
  • 1/4 cup sliced green onions
  • 1/4 cup diced parsley
  • 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
  • 1/2 tsp cumin
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tsp honey (or other sweetener)
Directions:
1. Cook quinoa according to package directions. Let cool.
2. Combine quinoa – parsley in a large bowl and stir.
3. Mix the dressing ingredients (lime juice – honey) in a small lidded jar and shake well.
4. Pour dressing over salad and mix well.
5.  Let sit in the fridge for a couple of hours for flavors to blend.  Keeps well for 3-4 days.

New to quinoa?  Here’s my Quinoa – Ingredient Spotlight post.

Want more Quinoa recipes?  How about….

Fall Quinoa with Roasted Butternut Squash and Onions

12 Jan

I’ve been making this dish for about a year and I tend to add something each time I make it.  I started with steamed sweet potato cubes and those morphed into oven roasted sweet potatoes and/or butternut squash, as I love the extra flavor the oven roasting develops.  I threw in some onions with the roasting squash and loved the addition.  We’ll see what gets added next time – I’m thinking a few roasted apple cubes might be nice….

Fall Quinoa with Roasted Butternut Squash and Onions

  • 1 cup quinoa, rinsed and drained (bonus points if you soak it first)
  • 2 cups butternut squash chunks
  • 1 onion, cut in large chunks
  • Olive Oil, salt, pepper
  • 2 cups water or broth
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp pepper
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/3 c dried cranberries
  • 1/2 c slivered almonds, toasted
Directions
  1. Preheat oven to 400F.  Toss butternut squash and onions with olive oil (about 2 Tbsp) and a dash of salt and pepper.  Place in a shallow pan or baking dish and roast for 30 minutes, stirring a couple of times.
  2. While roasting, place quinoa, broth/water, salt, pepper and cinnamon in a pan and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to simmer and cook until all liquid is absorbed, about 10 minutes.
  3. Let quinoa and the roasted vegetables cool a bit and toss together, along with cranberries.
  4. Top with slivered almonds.

Even though the flavors are a bit fall-like, I eat this dish through the winter too.  A rule breaker – that’s me!

Here is me contributing this very dish to our big family Thanksgiving spread, spreading the quinoa love:

 

Repeater Recipes – Curried Quinoa with Chickpeas and Apples

5 Dec

This is a recipe in my Repeater Recipe series, a series of posts where I feature previously posted recipes that show up often in our meal rotation.  It’s also a good chance to introduce some ‘classic’ recipes to my new readers.

Original Air Date: December 28, 2010

This is a recipe that has a strange ingredient list (well, strange to the non-food bloggers out there): quinoa, apples, curry, cilantro, etc.  Oh, and lime.  Of course.  And don’t forget the chickpeas.  Totally normal, right? Somehow the flavors just work, as does the contrasting textures. The crisp, sweet apples juxtaposed against the salty, curried quinoa?  Mmmmm.

The salad keeps will in the fridge for 2-3 days and tastes good cold and at room temperature.

Curried Quinoa Salad with Chickpeas and Apples

Curried Quinoa

  • 1 cup quinoa, rinsed and drained.  (I’ve used regular and sprouted)
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 Tbsp curry powder
  • 1 tsp cumin
Bring all ingredients to a boil.  Cover, reduce heat and simmer until all liquid is absorbed, about 15 minutes.  Remove from heat and cool.
Salad Ingredients
  • 2 cups cooked Curried Quinoa (see above)
  • 1 medium apple, diced.  I like granny smith best in this recipe.
  • 1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained -or- 2 cups cooked chickpeas
  • 3/4 cup shredded carrots
  • 1/4 cup diced cilantro
  • 1/4 cup diced green onion
Lime Vinaigrette Dressing
  • 3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
  • juice of 1 lime
  • 1 tsp lime zest
  • salt and pepper to taste
Mix all ingredients together and let sit in the fridge for a couple of hours for the flavors to meld.  Tastes great cold and at room temperature.

What I Ate Wednesday – Brought to You by the Letter P(ea)

26 Jul

It’s time again for What I Ate Wednesday, hosted by Jenn at Peas and Crayons.

I didn’t plan it, but my day of eats turned out to be pretty strongly influenced by Peas and Thank You, which is appropriate considering this is the week that Mama Pea’s book comes out.  My copy is somewhere en route from Amazon’s warehouse to me, via the slow ‘free super saving shipping,’ sharing a box with Terry Walter’s Clean Start.

First breakfast (before my yoga class) was fruit and a variation of this peanut butter chocolate crunch cookie dough ball from Oh She Glows.  Well, most of those berries…

there was a little berry thief on hand who has smartly learned that mom will not drop her beloved camera in order to swat away sticky little fingers. 

After yoga I had a bowl of oatmeal with bananas and peanut butter

and a green smoothie with spinach, bananas, coconut milk and ice.

Lunch was leftover grilled sweet potatoes that I re-toasted in the oven, a boiled egg, carrots, cucumbers and Mmmm Sauce (from Peas and Thank You).

Dinner was Zucchini Quinoa Lasagna (slightly modified from this Peas and Thank You recipe), Roasted Asparagus with Balsamic Browned Butter (Cooking Light recipe link here – my very favorite asparagus recipe) and fruit.  Like the Buzz Lightyear place mat in the back?    The kids got zucchini-less quinoa filling and tomato sauce.  My kids don’t do cooked zucchini.  Can’t say I blame them.  This is the only recipe with cooked zucchini that I’ve actually liked. Roasted asparagus with browned butter, however, causes my husband and I to fight over the last stalk.Now if I could just get Mama Pea to come over and do my dishes…..

Repeater Recipes – Sprouted Quinoa Salad with Grapes and Celery

13 Jun

This is second in my Repeater Recipe series, which is highlighting recipes already on this blog that tend to show up on my table often.

I know that one of my New Years Food Resolutions was to learn to sprout.  Here is my confession : I haven’t branched out beyond quinoa after a disastrous (i.e. moldy) attempt with sprouting buckwheat.

Quinoa, however, practically sprouts itself.  Simply soak it overnight, drain and place in a strainer covered with a dish towel for 4-8 hours, and watch for the tails to form:

hi little tails….

Sprouting is a good thing because it renders these little suckers even more nutritious.  Sprouting activates the enzymes in these seeds, which makes them more digestible and also increases the available vitamin content in the quinoa.  According to the Livestrong.com site, quinoa sprouts are abundant sources of vitamins C and E, as well as potassium, phosphorus and magnesium.

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/366246-how-to-use-sprouted-quinoa/#ixzz1OXSfHyjb

Once you’ve sprouted the quinoa, you can make this unusual but oh-so-tasty salad.  The combination of flavors sounds odd (grapes, celery, onions, cilantro) but just works.  Wonderfully.

Sprouted Quinoa Salad with Grapes and Celery

First Air Date: October 12, 2010

Ingredients

1/2 cup quinoa, soaked and sprouted
2 Tb lime juice
1 Tb macadamia nut oil
1 tsp rice vinegar
salt to taste
3/4 c chopped grapes
3/4 c chopped celery
1/3 c chopped cilantro
1 green onion, diced

Directions

  1. Mix quinoa – salt together and let sit at least an hour.
  2.  Add in remaining ingredients and let sit another hour for optimum flavor.

Have you had any success sprouting?

Quinoa and Chickpea Bake with Mmmm Sauce

7 Jun

I’ve made no secret of my obsession with admiration of Mama Pea at Peas and Thank You.  Picking my favorite recipe from that site would be like picking a favorite child.  Her pumpkin scones, cilantro jalapeno hummus and roasted chickpea tacos are on a steady rotation in my house.  My latest favorite is her Mmmm Sauce.  It is complex, tart, creamy and addictive.  My kids and husband do not like the sauce, which is fine by me, as I can eat the whole recipe in 2-3 days.  It’s my salad dressing some days, a dip for carrots and triscuits other days.

Last week I put it atop a wholesome but rather bland quinoa chickpea bake and it absolutely took the recipe from ho-hum to ‘eat 2 bowls in one sitting’ good.

Quinoa and Chickpea Bake with Mmmm Sauce

Ingredients:

1 batch Mmmm sauce (recipe here)

1.25 c uncooked, rinsed quinoa
3 cups water/vegetable broth/combo of both
1.5 c cooked chickpeas
1 chopped bell pepper (I used a mix of orange and yellow)
1/2 c finely chopped kale
1/2 c chopped zucchini
1/2 c finely chopped carrot
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp EVOO
2 Tbsp chopped fresh basil
1 Tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

Directions

  1. Make Mmmm sauce
  2. Preheat oven to 400F.
  3. Combine all ingredients in a lightly greased casserole dish and stir well.
  4. Bake, covered, for about 50 minutes, or until quinoa is cooked and liquid is absorbed.  Stir a couple of times during baking.
  5. Remove from oven, cool for a bit and top with Mmmmm sauce.
Who is your blog crush?

Crazy Sexy Buddha Bowls

17 May

In the cooler months (I won’t say cold, as I do live in San Antonio, TX) I make a ‘whatever veggies are in the fridge’ veggie soup once a week for dinner.  I usually make it on Monday nights and the husband and I call it our detox soup in order to flush away the weekend meals and start the week right.

Now that it’s getting hot (I will say hot, not warm, as I do live in San Antonio, TX), a hot veggie soup sounds too, well, hot.  Yes, we could eat it cold, but the husband and kids are not cold soup people.  Still, I’d like a meal that has similar attributes to the detox soup.

Enter the Buddha Bowl.  I just finished reading Kris Carr’s Crazy Sexy Diet and among the many things that intrigued me in the book was her usual dinner of Buddha Bowls.  Click here to see her version on the Crazy Sexy Life website.

I made this last night and it is absolutely going to be in the weekly rotation.

I made quinoa and brown rice, steamed some broccoli and roasted some green beans.  I also chopped up celery, mushrooms, raw broccoli, carrots, spinach and kale.

We all got to mix and match our own dinner, which, as you can imagine, the kid’s loved.  The husband actually decided to make his own stir-fry, so he just added all his veggies to a pan and stir fried away.  Sorry if that offends the raw food-ers.  :)

Another bonus was that I just tossed all the leftover veggies and quinoa into a bowl, added a little olive oil and ume plum vinegar and I have today’s lunch waiting for me in the fridge.

Have you read Crazy Sexy Diet?  Any thoughts on it?

Quinoa with Salsa and Black Beans

10 May

I was just looking over my blog and was surprised to see that I hadn’t posted one of my very favorite quinoa recipes.  I’ve been making this for about 3 years, long before I went high-raw or vegetarian.

This is the recipe I give to folks that want to try quinoa for the first time (love you quinoa virgins!) as it is easy, quick, contains ingredients that most folks have on hand and, most importantly, it quite tasty.

Quinoa with Salsa and Black Beans

2 Tb olive oil or grapeseed oil
1 c dry quinoa
1 c salsa
2 c water
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

Toppings: avocado, diced cilantro, more salsa, tortilla chips, cheese, sour cream

1. Heat the oil and brown the quinoa.
2. Mix in salsa and water and bring to a boil. Add beans, cover and simmer for 20 min or until quinoa is tender and most of the liquid is absorbed.

In the above picture I used this salsa which is yellow-ish, thus you can’t really ‘see’ the salsa in the photo.

It is good as is or as a salad topper for a vegan taco salad.

My kids don’t do salsa, even the most mild kind (they are poor excuses for Texans, huh?) so I usually save some beans out and either make a bean dip or bean and cheese quesadillas.

What is your favorite quinoa recipe? 

Caramelized Onion Quinoa with Toasted Nuts and Seeds

3 May

I started with the Quinoa Pilaf with Toasted Nuts and Seeds recipe from Clean Food (one of my favorite cook books lately) and modified based on what I had in my kitchen.

Caramelized Onion Quinoa with Toasted Nuts and Seeds

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 c quinoa
  • 3/4 c veggie broth (or water)
  • 1 Tbsp grapeseed oil
  • 1/2 onion, sliced thinly
  • 2 Tbsp toasted pumpkin seeds
  • 2 Tbsp toasted sunflower seeds
  • 2 Tbsp toasted sliced almonds
  • 2 Tbsp EVOO
  • 1 tsp ume plum vinegar
Directions:
  1. Rinse and drain quinoa and place in pot with broth/water.  Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer until all liquid is absorbed (about 15 minutes).
  2. In a skilled (I used a small cast iron skillet) over medium low heat, heat oil and add onions.  Cook over medium low heat until onions are reduced, brown and tender.  Cook slowly to get the caramelized yumminess.  It took me about 15 minutes.
  3. Mix quinoa, onions, nuts, seeds, oil and vinegar in a bowl and mix well.
  4. Serve warm or at room temp.

Curried Quinoa Salad with Chickpeas

28 Dec

The moms from my Bible study class had a holiday lunch gathering.  I knew there would be a Chick-Fil-A nugget tray, but after recently reading ” target=”_blank”>Eating Animals (and other books), I have moved from eating mostly vegetarian to being a vegetarian.  No nuggets for me.  At the same time, I also didn’t want to make a big deal about it with my friends and make anyone uncomfortable, so I made this salad for my meal.

In the spirit of keeping it real, my kids did eat the nuggets.  I’m trying to navigate the waters when it comes to how I feed them in social situations when all of their peers are eating food that I don’t feel good about.  My kids don’t currently share my convictions.  They are 5 & 2 – clearly they don’t get the implications of factory farming and other moral dilemmas associated with eating meat.  I don’t serve them meat at home and very rarely order it for them when we are out as a family.  However, once or twice a month we are in a situation like this where I have trouble asking them to forgo what all of their friends are eating.  I load up their plates with fruit and veggies and crackers and all the non-meat sides, but I do let them have the meat.

Okay, on to the recipe:

Curried Quinoa Salad with Chickpeas

  • 1 cup quinoa – I used sprouted, but regular would work fine
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 Tbsp curry powder
  • 1 tsp cumin

Bring all ingredients to a boil and cover, reduce heat and simmer 15-20 minutes.  Remove from heat and cool.

When cool, toss with:

  • 1 green apple, diced
  • 1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
  • 1/4 c diced cilantro
  • 2 carrots, shredded
  • 1/4 c diced green onions

Mix up and stir in dressing:

  • 3 Tbsp EVOO
  • 1 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
  • Juice of 1 lime
  • 1 tsp lime zest
  • salt and pepper to taste

A couple of days later the kids and I went on an outing and I enjoyed the salad again as a picnic lunch, while they ate pb&j.

Any other mamas out there facing this same dilemma with allowing/not allowing your kids to eat something based on your personal convictions?

Do you agree that it is quite hard to explain to a child that young why they aren’t allowed to eat something with all their friends, or am I taking the easy way out?

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