“Fried Rice”…made with quinoa!

One of my favourite sites, http://www.eatliverun.com, is a never-ending source of delicious and fun recipes. The blogger, Jenna, is a chef with a wonderful and carefree style that I love to read. Her recipes are awesome! This recipe was posted recently and I just HAD to make it…of course, I did make a couple of very minor changes to her original recipe due to what I had in my fridge and personal preferences…I know, I know, there wasn’t any garlic in the original recipe so I put some in. The original recipe also called for snow peas, which would be lovely but were not hanging around in my fridge, so I subbed celery which was tasty. I also added the mushrooms, but everything else is as the original recipe.

Other veggies could be substituted. If chicken or shrimp were added, I am sure they would taste great, but frankly this is so good as it is with just veg and eggs, it does not really need anything else. It is also a good, protein-y dinner.

This is so quick and easy and as Jenna said, “seriously a power meal!”

1 cup quinoa

2 cups water

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup celery, sliced thinly on the diagonal

2 green onions, sliced thinly on the diagonal

1 large garlic clove, minced

1 red bell pepper, diced small

4 large mushrooms, sliced thinly

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon coconut oil, divided

1 tablespoon fish sauce (don’t leave this out – it lends a beautiful flavour)

1 tablespoon soy sauce

 

Combine quinoa and water in medium saucepan and bring to boil. Reduce heat and cook 12-15 minutes, or until quinoa has absorbed all water. Once cooked, remove from heat, and fluff with fork.

Place half of the coconut oil in a wok or large skillet over high heat. Once oil is hot, pour eggs into pan and let cook until almost set (don’t scramble, just leave them). Remove onto plate while still surface of eggs is slightly runny. Put remaining coconut oil in pan, and add chopped veggies. Stir fry for about three minutes or until veggies are barely tender. Add quinoa to pan and mix together with veggies. Add eggs back in, breaking into pieces. Finally, stir in the sesame oil, fish sauce and soy sauce and mix well.

All done! Serves four (or fewer greedy) people 🙂

 

Delicious Yam, Red Pepper and Spinach Salad

I recently discovered “Eat Clean” food and fitness author Tosca Reno. Her “Eat Clean” style of cooking is delicious and inspired. Although I can’t quite do egg-white omelettes yet – the yolk is my favourite part! – I have been incorporating her style of cooking into a lot of our meals. I recommend her cookbook, the recipes are easy to follow and her choices of ingredients unusual and yummy. I made this salad of hers, and as usual had to mess with it slightly. I found the seasonings just a little on the shy side, so I upped them a bit. The contrast of colours and tastes (sweet and sour) are wonderful. The results were both colourful and delicious, and I thought I would share 🙂

1 large or 2 medium (orange!) yams, peeled and diced into 1/2′” cubes (about 4 cups’ worth)

1 large red pepper, cut in 1″ chunks

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

4 cups fresh spinach

Dressing:

2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

1 large clove garlic, minced finely

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon honey

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon olive oil

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Toss yam cubes and pepper pieces in olive oil until coated. Sprinkle with cumin, cayenne, salt and pepper and toss again. Spread onto baking sheet and bake for 20-25 minutes or until yam cubes are fork-tender. Let cool.

Whisk dressing ingredients together in small bowl.

Place cooled yam and pepper in salad bowl. Toss with dressing. Incorporate spinach leaves, tossing gently.

Serves 4-6 as a side salad, or 2 as a generous and tasty main course 🙂

Celeriac Soup

Bulbous, knobbly celeriac is an under-used vegetable, I find. Perhaps it is because it is probably one of the least attractive! Brown, rough and coarse-looking – don’t judge it by its looks! Its homely appearance hides a beautiful personality. Celeriac is widely used in Europe as a side veg, in soups, salads and stews. Its delicate celery taste is wonderful.

This soup is inspired by the recipe of one of my favourite chefs, Jamie Oliver. As I made his recipe, I made the adjustments as follows. His use of truffle oil, in my opinion, elevates the soup from “delicious” to “OMG spectacular” 🙂 you could, however, omit it and still have a lovely end product.

A note about truffle oil…consider it like perfume. A hint is lovely, but a lot is “too much”. Be mindful that different makes of truffle oil vary widely with regards to intensity and flavour. So, if you decide to use it, add it one tablespoon at a time as its flavour can very easily overwhelm the other flavours in the soup. For this quantity, I used about 3 tablespoons of good-quality white truffle oil.

1 onion, chopped coarsely

1 clove of garlic, chopped coarsely

500g/1 lb. celeriac (one average sized root), peeled and coarsely chopped

500g/ 1 lb. potatoes, peeled and coarsely chopped

2 tbsp. butter

2 tbsp. olive oil

2 tsp. dried thyme

1.5 litres vegetable stock (can use chicken stock), divided

1 cup heavy cream

salt and pepper to taste

3-4 tablespoons truffle oil, or to taste

chopped parsley to garnish

Heat olive oil and butter in soup pot and gently saute onion and garlic until transparent and soft, but not brown. Add celeriac, potato, thyme and one litre of the stock. Bring to boil, lower heat and cook gently for 35-40 minutes or until celeriac and potatoes are soft. Add the cream, and bring back to boil for a minute.

Remove from heat and puree with an immersion blender until completely smooth. Once vegetables are pureed, you might find the soup is a bit thick. If this is the case, thin it with a bit of the remaining stock, a little at a time, until you reach the consistency you like. Season to taste with salt and plenty of freshly ground pepper.

If you are using the truffle oil, add it now, a tablespoonful at a time. Stir each spoonful in well – it will “sit” on the top at first. Taste after each addition to make sure the truffle taste is there but STOP when you are happy with it. More is not necessarily better in this case.

Serve sprinkled with the chopped parsley as a garnish.

 

 

Quick Green Pea Soup

When you say “pea soup” to people, most think of the “split pea and ham bone” kind. As delicious as that is, it does take a while to make. This pea soup is made using frozen peas and has a lovely “fresh” taste. It is very pretty, very fast and easy – perfect for either a quick supper after work or as a soup course for a dinner with friends. It is delicious both when fully vegan or with the dairy and or bacon add-ons.

2 cups frozen peas (don’t have to defrost)

1 litre vegetable stock  (can use chicken stock)

salt and pepper to taste

a few leaves of mint (amount is to taste)*

2-3 green onions or equivalent amount of chives, chopped

crumbled cooked bacon bits (optional), to sprinkle

heavy cream (optional)

Bring stock and peas to boil and cook until peas are soft – don’t overcook them. Puree with immersion blender (or in conventional blender) with mint leaves until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Whiz in a bit more mint if you like.

As a garnish, you can a) sprinkle a few leaves of julienned mint leaves with the green onion on top, b) sprinkle the green onion with the bacon bits, or c) beat the cream slightly and put a dollop on top (with some mint and or onion).

*Basil would also be tasty in place of the mint.

Spicy Millet Cakes with Garlicky Red Pepper Sauce

This is an adaptation of a recipe I found on the Forks Over Knives site. It is very easy to make, and definitely hits the spice buttons. Leftovers refrigerate well and make great lunches for work, which will incite jealousy in your colleagues.

The sauce in the original recipe called for tofu. I don’t mind it occasionally but am not a huge fan. If you are, just blend one package of silken tofu in as described below. It also called for half the number of red peppers, but blackened and peeled. Roasted peeled red peppers which are lovely…but a pain to do, especially if you are pressed for time. My modification saves time (and there is extra fibre from the pepper peel!), and it got very good reviews. However, if you have time to roast the peppers, I am sure it would be delicious 🙂

For the millet cakes:

3 cups vegetable broth

1 cup millet

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 large onion, diced small

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp. curry powder

1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper

2 tbsp. mellow white miso, dissolved in 1/4 cup hot water

2 tbsp. tomato paste

1/4 cup nutritional yeast (optional, but good)

salt and pepper to taste

For the sauce:

2 tbsp. olive oil

4 large red bell peppers, diced

4 large cloves garlic, minced

1/4 cup cilantro leaves, chopped, plus a bit more for garnish

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

zest and juice of 2 small or one medium lime

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook millet in vegetable stock – bring to boil and reduce heat, cover and cook for 20 minutes over medium heat or until millet is tender.

While millet is cooking, heat oil in large frying pan and saute onion for a few minutes, until transparent and fragrant. Add curry powder, garlic and cayenne and cook for another minute. Remove from heat. Add miso, tomato paste, and if you are using the nutritional yeast, add it. Add the cooked millet to this mixture and mix well.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using an ice cream scoop or a measuring cup (1/3 cup size), shape millet into cakes and place on paper. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.

While the millet cakes are cooking, make the sauce (you could make this ahead). For the sauce, heat olive oil in pan and fry red peppers over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until soft and the skin starts to darken. Don’t crank up the heat, you don’t want “scorched”, only darkened – this will approximate the “roast pepper” flavour. Once most of the pepper pieces’ skins have started to darken and they are nice and soft, put peppers into food processor or blender. Add remaining ingredients, and whiz until pureed.

To serve, make a “puddle” of the red pepper sauce on the plate and position the millet cake on top. Sprinkle with additional chopped coriander if desired.

 

 

 

 

 

Fluffy Quinoa Pancakes

This is something that I had not tried to do until now, and when I researched pancake recipes using quinoa I found a lot of them called for quinoa flour. Chantal told me that the addition of quinoa made light pancakes, and seeing as I had a bowl full of plain cooked quinoa in my fridge, so was happy to find a recipe which I was able to adapt to suit our preferences. The results were delicious! Light, fluffy and very satisfying. We ate them with a light drizzle of maple syrup and some chopped banana. Very yummy.I doubled this recipe and it made 14 4-inch pancakes.

For 7-8 pancakes:

1 cup cooked quinoa (plain, cooked in water)

3/4 cup flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-free Flour, but plain flour would be fine)

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

2 eggs

1/4 cup milk

2 tbsp. maple syrup or honey (you could use sugar)

Mix quinoa with dry ingredients. Whisk wet ingredients together and stir into quinoa mixture until combined.

Heat a small amount of oil (I used coconut oil) in a skillet over medium heat. Drop 1/4 cup batter per pancake into hot skillet and cook until bubbles appear on the top, a couple of minutes. Keep an eye on the heat as these burn fairly easily. Flip and cook a couple of minutes on the other side, and enjoy with maple syrup, fresh fruit, applesauce, or whatever your favourite topping is 🙂

Fish (of your choice, you choose the seasonings) with Lemony Quinoa

The fish I used in this dinner was a fillet of steelhead – a delicious and cheaper alternative to “regular” salmon, which we love also. The steelhead is mild enough to go with many different types of seasonings, and makes a regular appearance on our dinner table.

The quinoa I made used plain cooked quinoa I had in the fridge – I have taken to making a large batch of quinoa, cooked with water, and using it up over several nights, in different recipes. It is convenient, and seeing as quinoa is so versatile, it inspires me to be inventive because half the work is done 🙂

The lemon in the quinoa complements pretty much any baked fish. I was pleased with this dinner because it was pretty as well as tasty – the black, red and green in the golden quinoa looked good with the pink fish. We had it with carrots! Very colourful 🙂

For the Fish:

For four servings, you will need one fish fillet (by this I mean one side of the fish) or piece of fish weighing about a pound or so – of steelhead, salmon, halibut, your choice. You could always use fish steaks and adjust cooking time accordingly.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Line your baking pan with tinfoil to save on cleanup time and mess later. Drizzle a thin line of olive oil down the centre of the tinfoil centre and lay your rinsed and dried fillet of fish, skin side down, on this. Drizzle a bit of olive oil on top of it, and brush it all over the surface of the fish.

Sprinkle your seasoning of choice over the fish – it can be as simple or as exotic as you like. You could also just top it with chopped green onions and minced garlic which have been tossed in a bit of olive oil and salt and pepper for something simple and flavourful. Alternately, a Malaysian-style seasoning called Nonya (from Victorian Epicure), which has a fair amount of cayenne pepper in it, is tasty. Mediterranean type seasonings would also be good. Be creative!

Once oven is heated, place fish in oven and cook for about 15 minutes (slightly more than 10 minutes per inch) or until fish tests barely opaque at thickest part.

While fish is in oven, prepare the quinoa:

3 tbsp. pine nuts

2 tbsp. olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 cups plain cooked quinoa

3 tbsp. black olives, chopped

juice and grated zest of one juicy lemon

2 tbsp. chopped chives or green onions

2 tbsp. chopped parsley

1/3 cup dried cranberries

salt and pepper to taste

In a heavy frying pan, toast pine nuts over medium heat until fragrant. Once they smell yummy, add olive oil to the pan, wait until it heats up and add the garlic. Cook for a couple of minutes until translucent.

Add quinoa and stir gently until oil mixture coats quinoa thoroughly. Add remaining ingredients, heat through over medium heat and serve with fish and a side veg or salad.

African-ish Peanut and Sweet Potato Soup

Recipes for this soup have always intrigued me because they are such eclectic combinations of ingredients, all of which I love. Today, finding I had ingredients I could work with, I came up with this version 🙂

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 large onions, chopped

4 cloves of garlic, minced

3 tbsp. medium curry powder (use less if your curry powder is “hot”, or to taste)

2 large orange yams, peeled and cut into 1″ chunks

4 cups vegetable broth, or low-salt chicken

1-28 oz can diced tomatoes

3/4 cup unsweetened dessicated coconut

1 teaspoon (or to taste) Asian “hot” chili-garlic condiment (or use cayenne pepper to taste)

3/4 cup *natural* peanut butter (do not use the homogenized, icky kind with icing sugar in it, use the “just peanuts” kind)

juice of one lime

1 teaspoon each salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 tbsp. chopped cilantro leaves

In large pot, heat oil and saute onions and garlic. Sprinkle curry powder over top and mix in, and fry for a couple of minutes. Add yams and fry for a couple more minutes. Add coconut, canned tomatoes (with their juice) and broth, and bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover and let simmer for 20 minutes.

Once the 20 minutes has elapsed and the yams are soft, stir in the remaining ingredients. Simmer for a few minutes to blend flavours and melt peanut butter completely into soup, and serve. Yum 🙂

Mixed Vegetable and Quinoa Salad

This salad is one that I put together today with our new beloved, quinoa. It is a different combination of tastes, and will be served with falafel (which I did not make), with minty-chivy yogourt on the side. You could try different veggies in this – feel free to experiment and let me know how it goes! 🙂

By the way, the seasoning I used was Victorian Epicure Moroccan seasoning – if you do not have that, a combination of equal parts of ground cumin and cinnamon would be good.

1 cup quinoa

2 cups water

1 broccoli crown, chopped into small pieces

6 green onions, sliced (use both white and green part)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 red pepper, chopped into dice

1 large carrot, peeled and grated

1 cup frozen peas

1/4 cup unsalted pumpkin seeds (“pepitas”) – sunflower seeds would also be tasty

1/2 cup Tamari almonds (or plain raw almonds)

1/2 cup dried blueberries (dried cranberries would be great, too)

about 10 mint leaves, cut into fine shreds

1-1/2 teaspoons Moroccan seasoning (or 1/2-1/2 ground cumin and cinnamon)

1/4 cup olive oil

juice of 2 limes

salt and pepper

Bring quinoa and water to boil in saucepan, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, leave lid on and let sit for 5 more minutes. Fluff with fork and let cool.

In large bowl, combine vegetables, nuts, seeds and berries. Add cooled quinoa and mix gently. Toss with the mint leaves, Moroccan seasoning, oil, lime juice and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Put in fridge to let flavours mellow, and enjoy 🙂

 

 

New Look, New Recipe… Mixed Vegetable Tortilla

The overall look of the blog has been changed to make it easier to read and access recipes – hope you like the changes 🙂

 

To celebrate this new change of look, I have decided to post a recipe that is one that I “changed” myself and the results of which were very happily received. True to form, I read the original recipe but did not have half the ingredients it called for, so I started mixing and matching! I love the colourful look and interesting combination of tastes of this tortilla/frittata/crustless quiche.

10-12 pieces of asparagus

1/4 cup olive oil

1 bunch beet tops, stems removed and shredded (about 1 packed cup, total)

1 sweet onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 medium sweet potato (or yam?  I can never remember…the orange one, anyway), cooked and peeled, then chopped into 1″ cubes

1-14 0z can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped into chunks

8 eggs

1 tsp. ground cumin

pinch salt and pepper

Snap lower stem off asparagus pieces and discard. Chop asparagus into 2″ pieces. Blanch asparagus in boiling salted water for a couple of minutes, only until they just turn colour – remove from heat, drain and rinse in cold water to arrest cooking. Drain and set aside.

Mix eggs in bowl with salt, pepper and ground cumin.

Heat olive oil in heavy frying pan, and saute garlic and onion in it until they just begin to soften. Add beet tops and cook for a few minutes until they wilt. Add sweet potato/yam, artichoke hearts and asparagus pieces. Stir gently to mix.

Preheat broiler in oven.

Pour eggs over vegetable mixture, and stir gently to combine all in pan. Cook over medium-low heat for about 8-10 minutes or until almost set – top will still look runny. Do not stir.

Once eggs are set-looking, slide pan under broiler to cook and brown top – this will just take a couple of minutes, so watch carefully.

When brown, remove from heat and let cool. This tastes best when eaten at room temperature.