Curry Quinoa with Cabbage, Carrots and Green Beans

The recipe for this curry quinoa salad came about from a conversation struck with a stranger on the bus. Intrigued by the two bunches of kale popping out of my grocery bag, a woman asked me how I prepared kale. We ran through the gamut of how to prepare this nutrient dense vegetable before she turned the conversation to quinoa. "Did you know that quinoa is the perfect food?"

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Fresh Local and Best Top 10 in 2010

2010 marked a turning point in a sequence of tough years for my husband and I.  We, along with the rest of the world, were grappling with one of the worst recessions in history, one that for better or worse brought us to New York City in early 2009. Amidst a flurry of big changes in our lives, there are three big events that made 2010 a memorable year.
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Clean Out the Fridge: Fig & Gorgonzola Pesto Quinoa

Last Sunday night, I was eager to finally break open one of the tins of pesto that I purchased at the SOWA Food Truck Festival.  I first read about Pestos with Panache on Lara's blog - Good Cook Doris.  After meeting Lauren at the SOWA Food Truck Festival, the person behind all of these interesting pesto flavor combinations, I knew I had to buy some!  I've had these tins of pesto in my freezer for awhile and I finally opened up the Fabulous Fig & Gorgonzola pesto on Sunday night.

My original plan was to toss the pesto with some quinoa and black beans but with some fabulous leftover ingredients in my fridge, this pesto quinoa dish took a life of its own. 

I first got started on my quinoa.  I learned from my previous experience with quinoa and made only one cup in my rice cooker this time!

While the quinoa was cooking, I got to work on the rest of my ingredients.  I had chopped up an entire sweet potato on Friday night for my chicken tikka masala and I still had half of the chopped sweet potato in the fridge.

I also had half a large sweet onion leftover from the same dish and I sliced it up.

During the day, I made a panini with goat cheese, proscuitto and Stonewall Kitchen maple pumpkin butter.  I had a few slices of proscuitto leftover.

I roughly chopped the proscuitto up.

I warmed up a deep skillet pan on the stove top with some cooking spray and a small pat of butter.  I threw the chopped proscuitto in the pan.  While the proscuitto was crisping up, I drained and rinsed a can of black beans.

When the proscuitto was done, I removed it from the pan onto some paper towels to soak up some of the grease and then put it aside in a bowl. 

I put the onions in the pan with the proscuitto renderings.

After the onions browned a little, I added the sweet potatoes.

I seasoned the vegetables with salt and pepper.  I wanted to let the sweet potatoes cook through so I added some rose to deglaze the pan and a few sprigs of thyme.  I had some thyme left over from my cherry tomato and goat cheese tart.  I put a lid on the skillet and let the wine cook down.

When all of the rose cooked down, I removed the thyme and added the cooked quinoa.  I added about half of the pesto tin along with a drizzle of olive oil.  I took a photo of the pesto before I mixed all of the ingredients together but the photo came out a little dark.  I'm really hating how the end of summer means limited natural light for my photos.

The aroma was intoxicating and I was happy when I could finally dig in.

The quinoa had a nice sweetness from the fig pesto.  The onions and sweet potatoes definitely added to the sweetness. The gorgonzola flavor was definitely subtle but it went well with the crispy smoky proscuitto.  The use of quinoa and black beans made this a really hearty meal.

I added a simple side of Olivia's Organic's 50/50 Blend and this made for a really filling "clean out the fridge" dinner.

Do you like pesto?  Tell me about your most creative pesto dish!

Adventures with Quinoa: Quinoa, Black Bean & Zucchini Salad

I've heard a lot of great things recently about quinoa.  It is a high-protein grain that is highly recommended as an alternative to white rice.  I have to admit that I was always hesitant to try quinoa because of its resemblance to couscous and I absolutely cannot stand the texture of couscous.  But when I tried a delightful quinoa salad at the Clover Food Truck, all fears disappeared and I was immediately a fan.

On Saturday, after the Bloodypalooza event, Bret and I ran some errands in the Back Bay.  We stopped at Trader Joe's to stock up on a few of our staples when I saw a box of quinoa and decided to throw it in our shopping basket.  I was really excited to give quinoa a try so I decided to play around with it the very next day.

I read the instructions on the box and saw that there were three different methods of preparation - stove top, rice cooker and microwave.  I decided to go with the method that sounded easiest to me and threw in two cups of quinoa with four cups of water in my rice cooker.  While the quinoa was cooking, I put a pot of water to boil to cook some corn on the cob, which I planned to use in my quinoa salad.

While the quinoa was cooking and the water was boiling, I got to work on my other ingredients.  First, I drained and rinsed a can of black beans.

I then chopped up one jalapeno pepper.  I kept about half the seeds of the pepper because I wanted to add a nice heat to my salad.

I then diced up one small zucchini and also added that to the bowl.

When my two ears of corn were almost done cooking and were a perfect al dente, I gave it a quick cold rinse to cool it down and then stripped the corn from the cob.  My quinoa was done cooking in the rice cooker just a few minutes later and when I opened the lid of the cooker, I was shocked.  There was a LOT of quinoa.  I had definitely made way too much and only used about half of the quinoa in my salad.

I added some black pepper, salt, red pepper flakes and cayenne to the large bowl of quinoa salad and gave it a stir.  The salad had a lot of nice crunch from the zucchini and peppers, along with a good level of heat from the jalapeno, cayenne and red pepper flakes.  Although I could have eaten this salad on its own, I decided to use it as a filling in a whole-grain sandwich wrap.

I'd have to say that my cooking adventure with quinoa was definitely a success.  Quinoa is so easy to cook and you can't help but just love the nutty aroma it gives off when it is cooking.  I definitely made way too much quinoa and had a lot of salad leftover (which made for a great lunch).  As for the rest of the quinoa that I didn't use in my salad, I made a risotto-like dish last night by cooking it in chicken broth, butter, garlic and Parmesan cheese.  Yum!  Since it is so versatile, I'm definitely looking forward to using quinoa again in my kitchen.

Have you tried cooking with quinoa? If so, please share your quinoa recipe with me!

Zested Lime Cilantro Quinoa Salad

My 2010 New Year's resolution was to eat more grains. Now that it's close to the mid-year mark, my assessment of personal success is somewhat mixed. Have I been trying out new grains? Yes, from red quinoa, millet, wheat berries, buckwheat to amaranth, check, check and check. But eating a variety of grains consistently, well I'm afraid that's one criteria that I haven't fulfilled. I do have another half year ahead of me, don't I?
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QUINOA - RINSE AND SPIN CYCLE

High in protein and rich in vitamins and minerals, this small seed packs a big punch in the nutrition arena. So much so that quinoa has been referred to as a supergrain. Indigenous to South America where it has been cultivated for several centuries, this seed has grown wildly popular in American kitchens where it has been adopted as an excellent gluten-free alternative and wonderful go-to grain for those short on time or simply seeking variety. And why not? Nutty with a delicate fluffy grain texture, quinoa is highly versatile and cooks very quickly.


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