Curry Ginger Quinoa

I was enjoying this so much that I almost finished it before taking a picture! This yummy recipe is super simple and totally satisfying.

• 2 cups quinoa (rinsed!!!!!!!)
• 3 1/2 cups water
• 1 teaspoon of each: salt, turmeric, curry powder, garam masala, cumin

Bring to a boil and let boil for a minute or two. Turn heat to low/med-low and simmer for 15 minutes. Turn off heat, cover with paper towel, place lid on top and set aside for about 5-10min.

With cooked quinoa....toss with....

• 3 tablespoons of sesame oil
• 3 tablespoons of evoo
• Juice of one juicy lime
• *Microplane or Zester: two cloves of garlic and one chunk of fresh ginger
• Hit with several shakes of red crushed pepper (I like it spicy....)
• A few tablespoons of Coconut Aminos (or Braggs or Soy Sauce)
• Diced scallions
• Chopped cilantro
• Adjust salt to taste.

Yum.

Autumn Stuffed Squash

A friend posted a picture of a squash stuffed with wild rice on Facebook, and it sparked my interest. I headed to Santoris, picked up some Acorn squash and meditated on it for a bit. I ended up with the following creation....a first attempt that was actually a super success!

Autumn Stuffed Squash (for 4)

-2 acorn squash
-1 cup quinoa (soaked and rinsed)
-2 cups chicken broth or veg broth
-5 spring onions
-1 small zucchini, diced small
-fresh sage
-large handful kale (sliced fine)
-sundried tomatoes
-cashews
-salt, pepper, garlic, red pepper flakes
-tahini
-lemon juice

1. Slice the acorn squash in half. Scoop out any seeds. Place in a roasting dish, face up. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, garlic, and a touch of nutmeg. Drizzle with oil (coconut or olive) and pour 1/2 cup of chicken broth into the bottom of the roasting dish. Cover with tin foil and roast at 250 for about 2 hours. You want the squash to be tender, but not mushy.

2. After soaking (best if soaked overnight, but a few hours will do) and rinsing the quinoa, pour 1 1/2 cups chicken broth into pot with quinoa and bring to a boil. Hit it with salt and garlic. Boil for a few minutes then put it on simmer for 15 minutes with a lid covering it. Take it off the heat, cover the top of the pot with a papertowel, put the lid back on and let it sit for five minutes. Fluff with a fork. Season with some red pepper flakes.

3. In a skillet, sautée diced green onions, zucchini, kale, sundried tomatoes, sage and chopped cashews. Salt, pepper, garlic, red pepper flakes.

4. Toss quinoa and diced veggies together and then use this to stuff the squash.

5. Place this under the broiler or in the oven to warm and bring it all together.

6. The dressing: tahini, lemon juice, hot water (to thin it to right consistency), garlic, and salt.

Hit it with a dash of salt and serve a little salad alongside. Boom.

So damn delicious. Enjoy.

Quinoa Porridge

In the past I had posted a recipe for a lip-smacking quinoa porridge. This recipe I'm posting today is a bit different, made with quinoa *flakes*, and therefore has more of an oatmeal consistency. I was forced to create this because it turns out that I have a stomach ulcer (my nutritionist said that its probably from the emotional stress of this intense 2-year cleanse that I'm on, combined with the stress that the strict change made to my body...also,
Pepper in some stress of every day living...). He recommended that I add oatmeal and okra to my diet...two foods that will help coat and protect my stomach, helping the healing process. Oatmeal is out because I am (mostly) grain free and totally gluten free on this cleanse. So: quinoa (flake) porridge. You can buy these flakes at any health food store or online, and they even carry them at the Shoprite here in Marmora.

One cup hot water
1/3 cup quinoa flakes
Generous sprinkling of cinnamon
Pinch of Celtic sea salt
Drop of vanilla extract (alcohol free...Frontier makes a great one!)
Small scoop of Ghee (the healing properties are endless)
Sweeten with Xylitol

All you have to do is boil the hot water and pour it over top and the mix mix mix. Voila. You like thin porridge? Use more water. Thick? Use less. If you're not on the candida cleanse feel free to jazz it up with dried fruit or fresh fruit and some honey!

Quinoa + Eggs

Okay, so I realize that this doesn't LOOK crazy appetizing, but its fucking amazing. Thanks to my friend Brie for introducing me to this epic paring of two of my most favorite foods. I almost always have cooked quinoa in the fridge...I put it on salads, in wraps, and sautee it with veggies and such. But this is my favorite incarnation of this delightful, fluffy and healthy grain. 

I began by sauteing some leeks (from the garden) in a skillet. You could always use onions or shallots if you'd like. Then I put a few big spoonfuls of the cooked quiona into the skillet, married it to the leeks and then I poured two eggs (which I beat first) over top. The eggs almost act like a glue, making a somewhat loose "patty" of the quinoa. I scrambled it around the pan, added some cumin, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. I served this 'omlette' over some kale from the garden, some sliced tomato and avocado, and I finished it by sprinkling it with raw hulled sunflower seeds. Oh yeah, and I topped it with some tahini dressing (if you don't make it yourself, a delicious one available at the supermarket is Annie's GODDESS Dressing).  ENJOY, and big thanks to Breezy for the inspiration <3

J-Ngan's Sauteed Greens over Quinoa

Janice has a skill that not many people have...the clean out the kitchen and make something epic skill. My mom has it too, and it's damn impressive. With a little of this and a little of that, Janice just started pulling random things from the fridge and pantry and voila....an epic meal. The whole point is to clean out the fridge, but since the recipe was so good I'm going to share it with you so you can swing by the grocery store and pick up what you need...

Sauteed Greens over Quinoa with Farm Fresh Egg

• Swiss Chard
• Two little heads of baby bok choy
• One can of chick peas, rinsed
• 2 cloves of garlic, diced
• One tomato, diced
• Pancetta (obviously you can leave this out to make it a vegetarian meal)
• Quinoa
• Water, or better yet - BROTH, and better than that...HOMEMADE broth
• Eggs

1. In a pan, sautee your diced pancetta, when that's cook remove the pancetta and set aside.

1. In that same pan sautee throw in the diced garlic, bok choy and the stems of the chard into the pan and sautee til they have softened a bit.
   
2. Throw in the diced tomatoes and chickpeas, and then add in the leafy parts of the greens.
3. In a separate bowl, cook your quinoa. I always do 1 cup quinoa, 1 1/2 cup liquid. Instead of using water Janice used a homemade chicken stock that she'd made and it was deeeeelicious.
   
4. To assemble put a bed of quinoa down, the sauteed goodness on top, toss some of your pancetta on top of that and then finish with a fried FARM FRESH EGG.
   

SO GOOD.

Quinoa Crack.

I have never been a drug user. I do love alcohol {beer, cocktails, wine and CHAMPAGNE please!}, but as far as pills, weed, organics and the hard stuff is concerned - it has never interested me at all. I can count the amount of times I've puffed the ganja on one hand (okay, realistically I'd probably have to use both hands), and I've never enjoyed it. My addictions are no joke - I'm heavy into my 'drugs' of choice, but they are of a different nature than your average substance abuse. The one thing that I'm crazy addicted to right now is QUINOA. I'm assuming that the emotions I've been experiencing towards this Incan grain is how a rampant drug-addict would feel for their crack. I hear it calling my name everytime my belly growls...and after consuming it I feel a full body high, complete satisfaction. Aside from my super epic Quinoa Porridge, I have yet to come up with any other interesting ways to consume these little fluffy bits of whole grain heaven. I've done them up in a Mediterranean style and have thrown them onto of salads - but that's about as creative as I've been able to get. They are a difficult grain to incorporate due to their (totally spectacular and) unique texture. Well, after scouring the web and fusing together several different quinoa recipes, I have developed the WINNER. Though I do believe that I should deliver this recipe with a warning: after your first bite, you will become addicted. It's not a "heads up", it's a signed guarantee.....

Lemon Garlic Quinoa with Roasted Beets

Here is what you'll need:

• Quinoa (I use a 14oz bag of Arrowhead Mills Quinoa, it's about 2 full cups)
• 3 1/2 cups of Vegetable Stock (Always cook your grains with flavor, hence the vegetable stock - or chicken stock if you're not a veg. Also, cooking quinoa calls for 1 part grain, 2 parts liquid BUT this results in heavy, mushy quinoa. I always use a little bit less liquid than it calls for, because after all, you can always ADD water but you can't take it away. Hence this recipe, 2 cups grain and instead of using 4 cups liquid, I'm only using 3.5)
• 5 beets, as well as beet greens (Beets come in all sizes, so for me to give you a number would be difficult. Also, when you buy them in a bunch sometimes there are 3 and sometimes 5...who knows. Buy enough for you and who you're cooking for)
• Pinch of Saffron
• Salt and Pepper
• 2 cloves fresh Garlic
• Shallots (1/3 cup)
• Olive Oil
• 1 Lemon
• 2 teaspoons cumin

How it's done....

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees f
2. Peel beets and wrap individually in tin foil. Place in PREheated oven and let them roast for about 45minutes. While these are roasting, go ahead with the following:
3. QUINOA: Soak, rinse, and then rinse again. You'll need a fine mesh strainer. This is very important. *The outer part of quinoa is coated with saponin- a sticky, bitter tasting substance that protects it in growing but can cause indigestion, as well as ruining the taste of the grain. The only way to rid the grain of it is to rinse it.
4. After soaking the quinoa, add the grain and the vegetable broth (3.5cups) to a pot, along with the pinch of saffron, and bring to a boil. I let it boil for about 2 full minutes before turning it down to a simmer. You can cover it or leave it open - but it takes about 20 minutes for all the water to be absorbed and for the grain to become light and fluffy (as opposed to dense and crunchy).
5. Now just leave your quinoa be -- you'll be coming back to that.
6. Beet greens: don't use any bit of the stem, just the greens. Rip them up a bit (after washing them of course) and toss into a skillet with some olive oil, salt and pepper. Since greens cook down so very much, I'd recommend adding a heapful of spinach to fill it out at bit.
7. In the same skillet , sautee your thinly sliced shallots in a bit of olive oil - basically doing a quick-caramelizing-job on them. Set aside.
8. Mix up a dressing of: juice of 1/2 a juicy lemon, along with zest of half a lemon, 2 cloves of fresh garlic that have been grated on the zester, your 1-2 teaspoons of cumin, salt, pepper, and olive oil. Whisk, whisk, whisk, whisk. Add 3/4 of the dressing to your quinoa and mix, mix, mix.
9. Remove beets from foil, thinly slice, and then toss in the remaining bit of dressing. Voila!

A beautiful way to plate for an individual serving: cooked greens on half the dish, quinoa in the middle, and then a half moon of beets on the right. Sprinkle your sauteed shallots on top.

A beautiful way to plate for a dinner party: beets covering the bottom of the serving dish, quinoa just in the middle, held in a circle by the beet greens - then finished with the shallots.

ENJOY, ENJOY, ENJOY -- this recipe is sure to blow your skirt up and get you totally hooked!

Green Eggs + Quinoa Porridge

Heart-Attack In A Skillet AKA "The Kitchen Sink", and Quinoa Porridge

@ Green Eggs Cafe

Drove up to Philly the other day to have brunch @ Green Eggs Cafe {1306 Dickinson Street, Philadelphia, PA}. It was goddamn delicious!! Homemade, amazing ingredients...and cooked with love. My friend, who was hungover, had "The Kitchen Sink" : Two eggs scrambled with cheese, our signature potato, peppers, and onions, topped with homemade jumbo biscuit and country sausage gravy in a cast

iron skillet , and I had the Quinoa Porridge : Agave nectar, cinnamon, cardamom, golden. raisins, cream, and

fresh berries. Everything was perfect. The restaurant is cute to boot, the service was great, and the presentation of the dishes were delightful. I love the idea of porridge, but the consistency of it always throws me off and makes me feel like I'm a senior-citizen who wears dentures. Ew. I loved the earthy texture of the Quinoa amoungst the cream. I loved how the tartness of the fresh berries cut the sweetness of the agave, and my tastebuds danced around to the presence of cardamom + golden raisins {two of my favorite ingredients in Indian cuisine}. I love love loved Green Eggs, and I look forward to a return trip.

I googled quinoa porridge recipes and found one...check it out, try it out, and enjoy!

Benefits of Quinoa:

It is gluten-free, high in calcium, iron, lysine, vitamin E and several B vitamins while also being low in fat and sodium. Not to mention, it is considered by some to be the perfect protein due to the presence of all 8 essential amino acids needed for tissue development in humans. Other grains can't even boast half of the protein of quinoa! Just four ounces (about 1/2 cup) per day provides a child with all their needed protein intake for one day.

Quinoa tastes great hot or cold. Cooked quinoa is excellent in soups, stews, salads, stir fries or casseroles. This impressive seed brings great texture and a nutty, delicate flavor to any dish. The good news for busy home cooks is that quinoa cooks very quickly, usually in 15 minutes or less, and can be infused with flavor as it cooks just like rice or couscous. Try cooking your quinoa in fruit juice or your favorite stock when serving as a side dish or dry roasting the seeds in the oven when throwing into a cold salad.

Quinoa Porridge

1/2 cup uncooked quinoa
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup milk (skim or soy preferred)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamom
Dash of sea salt
1/4 cup raisins
1 tsp plain or vanilla yogurt
2 tsp agave nectar plus more to taste
Chopped fruit and nuts if desired

*Serves one hungry person or two people if you add toast and fruit.

Combine quinoa, water, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp cardamom, salt and 1/4 cup of the milk in a pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until most of the liquid has been absorbed. Add the remaining 1/2 cup of milk, cinnamon, cardamom and the raisins and allow to simmer for about 5 minutes or until it reaches a thick consistency. Add agave nectar and yogurt; stir to combine. Serve in a bowl or mug with some sliced or whole berries and an extra drizzle of agave nectar on top.

{http://www.examiner.com/cooking-in-philadelphia/keen-for-quinoa-porridge}