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Greens and Quinoa Pie

April 19, 2011 § Leave a Comment

Good morning~

I thought I’d re-post this recipe for Greens and Quinoa Pie for my friends who will be celebrating Passover this week.

For some reason, I haven’t made this dish since last year. It sounds so good, I think I’ll make it tonight!

Enjoy!

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Well, the March 2010 issue of Vegetarian Times (VT) has not let me down this week. I made another great dinner tonight. However, just to warn you, it’s not a 30-minute meal. Especially if one has to keep bringing a certain two-year-old upstairs for time-out. (He was in rare form today, fo sho).

But anyyywaayyy, the recipe, Greens and Quinoa Pie, is actually included in an article entitled “Super Seder.” During Passover “most grains and, in some Jewish cultures, all beans and legumes” cannot be eaten. In addition, “the symbolic meal features meat (a roasted lamb shank bone is traditional on the seder plate),” which is obviously not ideal for a vegetarian. Hence, Myra Kornfeld put together a vegetarian seder menu that “highlights the bounty of spring.” This pie is the centerpiece of her menu. Check out pages 50-53 of VT for the accompanying dishes.

[Ok, so my husband just came home, made himself a dish, and is now saying "mmmm" and "this is amazing." He's now asking me to report that Berkshire Brewing Co.'s Coffeehouse Porter is a great complement to the dish. And now he just said that the pie "may be his new favorite." And now he's going back for seconds. This is riveting stuff right here. I bet it's almost as exciting as the blog updates he posted during my 30-hour labor.]

If you’re part of CSA or are growing your own greens, this recipe is a great way to use them.

Greens and Quinoa Pie*

Serves 6. Gluten free

Technically, quinoa is not a grain (it’s related to spinach and chard), so it’s perfect for Passover. Here, spring greens are wilted then mixed with quinoa and cheese for a golden-crusted savory pie.

1/2 cup quinoa, rinsed and drained

1 large bunch chicory (1 to 1 1/4 lb.), cut into bite-sized pieces (bottom 1 1/2 inches of hard stems removed) (Note: I used 2 bunches of Swiss chard instead)

1 head romaine lettuce, shredded

3 Tbs. olive oil, divided

2 medium onions, thinly sliced (2 cups)

2 green onions, thinly sliced (1/4 cup)

1/4 cup chopped fresh dill

1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese, preferably Greek (1 oz.)

1/4 cup grated aged goat cheese or Swiss cheese (1 oz.) (Note: I used Swiss)

3 eggs, lightly beaten

1. Place quinoa in small saucepan, and toast over medium heat 2 to 3 minutes, or until almost dry. Add 1 cup water and season with salt, if desired. Cover, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer, covered, 15 minutes. Remove from heat, and transfer to large bowl.

2. Heat large pot over medium heat. Add chicory, and cook 3 to 5 minutes, or until wilted, stirring frequently or tossing with tongs. Add romaine, and wilt 1 to 2 minutes more. Transfer greens to strainer, and squeeze out excess moisture. Transfer to cutting board, and chop into small pieces. Stir greens into quinoa.

3. Preheat oven to 350F. Heat 1 Tbs. oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions, and saute 10 minutes, or until browned. Add cooked onions, green onions, dill, feta cheese, and goat cheese to quinoa mixture. Stir in eggs; season with salt and pepper, if desired.

4. Pour 1 Tbs. oil into 9-inch pie pan, and place in oven. Heat 5 minutes, or until oil is hot. Swirl oil to coat bottom of pan, then spread quinoa mixture in pan with spatula. Bake 20 minutes. Drizzle pie with remaining 1 Tbs. oil, and bake 20 to 30 minutes more, or until golden brown.

Per slice: 233 cal.; 10 g prot.; 13 g total fat (4 g sat fat); 20 g carb; 115 mg chol.; 149 mg sod.; 7 g fiber; 4 g sugars

: Greens & Quinoa Pie

*Again, I copied the recipe verbatim from the March 2010 issue of Vegetarian Times, page 51.

I would say that this recipe gets 5 out of 5 “mmms.”

Stating the Obvious and a Perfect Soup

February 1, 2011 § Leave a Comment

I’m probably stating the obvious here, but in case you didn’t know, it’s snowing again.

That’s all I have to say about that.

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A certain kind of weather calls for a certain kind of food.

Hot, humid, summer days beg for fruity, icy popsicles.

And cold, snowy, winter days beg for nourishing, hot soup (and copious amounts of red wine. After 5:00 p.m., of course. Although today may be an exception. What time is it now? 9:30 a.m.? It’s 5:00 somewhere, right?).

Anyway, I love this soup. I’ve made it at least 4 times this winter. And despite its name, it’s not just for the holidays.

Thanks to Angela at Oh She Glows for yet another winner of a recipe.

Holiday Soup For The Soul

This is hands down one of my all time favourite soups! Not only does it look festive just in time for the holidays, but it tastes incredible and warms the soul. It packs a wide array of seasonings and spices from cinnamon, nutmeg, and vegetable bouillon, to the saffron and curry. Somehow it just all works together magically!

Inspired by Fat Free Vegan Kitchen.

Ingredients:

1 large carrot, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup red quinoa, uncooked (I used regular quinoa this time – pwa)
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 medium sweet onion, finely chopped
1 medium zucchini, chopped*
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 vegetable bouillon cube (not low sodium)
6 cups water, boiled
One 15-ounce can diced tomatoes (I used 1 28 oz. can this time – pwa)
1.5-2 cups cooked black beans (about one 15 oz can) (I used 1 25 oz. can this time – pwa)
1 tsp good-quality curry powder
Pinch or two of cinnamon
Pinch of ground nutmeg
2 cups baby spinach leaves, well rinsed and roughly chopped
1/2 tsp kosher salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Pinch of saffron threads (optional, but tasted amazing) (I didn’t use saffron this time – pwa)

Directions: Heat the oil in a large soup pot. Add the chopped sweet onion and sauté over medium-low heat until translucent. Add the chopped carrots, chopped zucchini, and minced garlic, and continue to sauté for about 5-7 minutes.

Place your bouillon cube into a medium sized bowl. Boil 6 cups of water and pour over the bouillon cube. Stir well to dissolve. Add bouillon mixture, tomatoes, red quinoa, black beans, and spices + seasonings. Bring to a boil and then simmer gently for 15 to 20 minutes.

Add the roughly chopped spinach, stir well, and cover. Simmer on low for about 15-35 minutes. The longer you cook it the more the flavours will develop. Taste test and adjust seasonings if necessary. I also have a feeling this soup will be even better the next day! Garnish with nuts of choice if preferred.

Makes about 8-10 cups.

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*I usually don’t buy zucchini (or tomatoes) in the winter because it just doesn’t seem right to eat them in the winter. They grow in the SUMMER and should be eaten in the summer. However, I really do like the zucchini in this soup, so I made an exception to my rule.

I also used more diced tomatoes and black beans than called for in the original recipe because I had the larger cans on hand. I often follow a recipe to a T, which results in little Tupperware containers of leftover diced tomatoes or whatever taking up space in my refrigerator. I have the best intentions to use the leftovers, but of course they sit and sit and sit until they look like a mold-growing experiment.

Luckily, the extra ingredients did no harm. It’s still soupy, not stewy. I added a little more cinnamon and nutmeg at the end, but that’s it.

The result is a warming, feel-good soup that’s great mopped up with a piece of sourdough bread.

And accompanied by a glass of red wine.

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Stay warm and safe if you’re weathering the storm somewhere.

Peter and I will be hanging out, pretending to drink Play-doh hot cocoa, and singing songs like “Cocoa-cabana” and “I’m Dreaming of a White Tuesday.”

Cheers!

Mom’s Club Recipe: Peanut Butter Chicken over Quinoa

January 29, 2011 § Leave a Comment

Hi! I hope your weekend is off to a great start! Our’s is Yesterday afternoon we had Peter’s first parent/teacher conference (he’s doing awesomely) and then we had the best pizza we’ve had yet in Central Massachusetts, at Flats in Worcester. Flats focuses on local, organic ingredients, which is music to my ears (eyes? Whatever. You know what I mean). And they serve up pizza with a thin, crispy crust, which is music to my mouth. (Central Mass is the land of thick crust “Greek-style pizza.” Being from New Haven county, I’m all about the thin crust). Flats also offers delicious-sounding salads, sandwiches, and appetizers/snacks.

We started with the white bean hummus appetizer. The creamy and garlicky hummus was served atop two big crispy romaine lettuce leaves. The hummus delivery vehicles (HDVs) were crostini and crispy wontons. The dish was fresh and delicious. We followed that up with the “Jules” pizza (classic Napoli , thin crust, red sauce, torn basil, fresh mozzarella, sea salt and evoo). It was a little heavy on the evoo, but besides that it was wonderful. It was my first time eating real cheese in nearly a month. It was good, but I can still say that I’ll be limiting my cow’s dairy intake. I might have pizza with cow’s milk cheese once a month. On the rest of our “pizza nights” I’ll stick to veggie/hummus subs or make homemade pizza with Daiya.

Oh, one little touch that I loved was when the waitress brought out the pizza (cut into large, haphazard rectangles) on a ginormous silver tray, she placed the tray on top of a big empty tomato can (you’ll have to use your imagination because I was too busy stuffing my face to take pictures. I know, food blogger extraordinaire over here.) So, the can was a space saver and a reuse/recycle effort! Love it!

If you find yourself in Worcester, go to Flats (and BYOB). The End.

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Onto the real story of the day, here’s this week’s Mom’s Club recipe from Pam:

…Anyway, the recipe that I am going to share today is Peanut Butter Chicken over Quinoa. My son used to be allergic to lots of foods – milk, eggs, wheat, soy, apples, pineapple, spinach, but strangely enough, nuts have always been okay for him. So, for years, I had to cook allergen-free meals, and this one was everybody’s favorite.

Peanut Butter Chicken

2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut into 1-inch cubes* (organic chicken, if possible – pwa)
1 medium onion, sliced
7 fresh mushrooms sliced (I slice them large, so we can pick them out of the children’s portions, as they don’t like mushrooms)
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 (14 oz) can diced tomatoes with juice (I like petit cut diced tomatoes)
3/4 cup chicken stock (I use boullion & water if I don’t want to open a carton of chicken stock)
3/4 cup smooth peanut butter
salt and pepper to taste
prepared quinoa

Directions:
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the chicken pieces and cook until chicken starts to turn white. Add the onion, mushrooms, and red pepper flakes. Season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring constantly (I just stir occasionally) until onions are translucent, about 5 minutes.
Pour the tomatoes and chicken stock into the skillet, and simmer for about 10 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through. Stir in peanut butter and cook, stirring constantly until the sauce thickens. This should take only a minute or two. If the sauce is not thickening, you may stir in more peanut butter.
Serve over quinoa (or rice or noodles).

*I have also made this recipe using chick peas instead of chicken.

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(Thanks, Pam! I’m definitely going to try this. I’ll probably make two pans – one with organic chicken and the other with chickpeas. Updated to add: while I was putting romaine lettuce leaves in my juicer, I thought that this dish may be a good filling for a lettuce wrap…I’m not sure how thick the sauce is, though…maybe the solid ingredients can be taken out of the pan with a slotted spoon and used as the lettuce wrap filling (along with quinoa) and then the sauce leftover in the pan could be used as a dip? - pwa)

Clean-Out-the-Cabinet Quinoa Salad

August 29, 2010 § 2 Comments

I had a heap of quinoa left over from a dinner I made for Peter and my 6-year-old nephew, Elijah. As Eli will tell you: “‘Quinn-oh-ah’ is [his] favorite grain and it’s a very healthy grain.” Little did he know that he was preaching to the choir. However, he was already mad at me for correcting his mispronunciation of quinoa; I wasn’t about to crush him further by telling him that I already knew that “keen-wah” is a healthy grain. I was just thrilled to be serving him something other than cream cheese and jelly sandwiches (blech!)

QUINN-OOHHH-AAAAHHH!!!

Yesterday at lunch time, I grabbed the leftover plain-old-cooked-in-vegetable-broth quinoa and a bunch of random ingredients that sounded to me like they’d taste good together and created this rather tasty salad. It was definitely missing the leafy green component and I wished that I had some spinach in the vegetable bin. Also some basil or maybe fresh oregano? I’ve never used fresh oregano, so I’m not sure how it would work. But that’s the fun of these mix-in dishes — you just throw stuff together and find out what works.

Ingredients

1 cup uncooked, rinsed quinoa (unprocessed quinoa has a bitter coating called saponin. Most likely the quinoa found in the store is saponin-free, but I take the better-safe-than-sorry route and always rinse my quinoa in a fine mesh strainer before cooking. After rinsing, you can also toast quinoa in a dry frying pan to bring out a nuttier flavor. After toasting, boil as per package directions.)

2 cups water or broth

1 large tomato, cut into chunks

1/2 onion, chopped

1 handful kalamata olives, sliced

1 handful green olives, sliced

1/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled

1 handful toasted, sliced almonds

1 15 oz. can garbanzo beans, rinsed

1-2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

salt and pepper

Directions

1. Cook the quinoa according to package directions. Typically those directions are: bring 1 cup of quinoa and 2 cups of liquid to a boil. Lower heat to a simmer and place a lid on the pot. Cook for 10-15 minutes until liquid is absorbed. Fluff with fork. Allow to cool.

2. Once quinoa is cooled, place all ingredients in a large bowl and toss together. Top with extra almonds and/or feta and dig in.

(I’m all about very basic olive oil dressings. If you like fancier dressings, by all means experiment with them on these kinds of mix-in dishes. )

This salad is even better the next day. I know this because I just ate a bowl. I also drank a pre-made margarita that came out of a box! For real! It’s like boxed wine, but it’s a margarita! It’s not wonderful and some would say “not classy,” (and to those people I say “hey, check out my tramp stamp!”*) but it’s very hot today and I came down with my usual hot-day-guacamole-and-margarita craving. I don’t have any avocados in the house to make guacamole, but the quinoa salad totally hit the spot.

*I’m just kidding. I don’t have any tattoos. Not that there’s anything wrong with tattoos. Many of my nearest and dearest have them.

Anyway, here’s the salad:

Clean-out-the-cabinet quinoa salad

I hope you’re enjoying your Sunday! I’m off to make pork tenderloin with roasted apples and onions. And it’s 95 degrees outside. How awesome is that? Can you think of a better way for a vegetarian to spend her afternoon?

Not My Best Idea

May 3, 2010 § Leave a Comment

Cooking on the hottest day of the year (so far) wasn’t one of my better ideas. I’m so hot right now I kind of feel like crying. And this hot laptop isn’t helping, so this shall be an unusually brief post. Hallelujah, right?

For dinner I made Heidi Swanson’s Double Broccoli Quinoa recipe. I’m just going to link to the recipe here rather than copying it. I’ve been wanting to make it for a while and tonight was the night. It was good, I enjoyed it, but I’m sure I’ll enjoy it more when I’m not wiping sweat from my brow between forkfuls. I was intrigued by making a pesto with broccoli instead of basil. There’s some pesto left over and I’m looking forward to spreading it on a tomato sandwich tomorrow for lunch. Or tossing it with pasta. Or mixing it in scrambled eggs…it won’t go to waste, that’s for sure.

As Heidi suggested, I topped the dish with feta cheese, avocado and toasted sliced almonds. I skipped the fire oil since, as I may have mentioned, I was already HOT. Possibly melting. In my humble opinion, the toppings are mandatory rather than optional. They’re so good, and, of course, a nutritional boost to boot. (How many commas can I use in a sentence? I am the worst comma user in the world. My middle name should be Splice.)

Anyway, here’s a picture. I have to go now because I’m, you know…

Double Broccoli Quinoa

HOT!!!

I hope you had a nice weekend~