Quinoa | Eat Your Heart Out

Southwestern Style Veggie Burgers

September 24, 2012 by Stephie 7 Comments

Umm…is it Friday yet?

No? Well, shoot.

I have to make a confession to you: Lately, my weekday meals have been a little on the sad side.

Now, weekends are a different story. Weekends have become my time to work on recipes for the blog, which means that I eat pretty well on Saturday and Sunday.

But during the week? Not so much.

I think a lot of it has to do with my new job. Don’t get me wrong – I love this job more than I even thought possible. But I have been working my @$$ off, and with a variety of other things happening in the evenings, I’m exhausted by the time I get home. I’m lucky to bother doing anything aside from collasping in bed, much less making a balanced meal for just myself.

So I’ve been trying to come up with things that I can make over the weekends and then either freeze for later or eat throughout the week. Chicken and noodles were an option recently. And last week I decided to give these Southwestern Style Veggie Burgers a try.

This recipe makes 8 decent-sized burgers, which means that there is enough to eat and put into the freezer for later meals. Just cook ‘em, let ‘em cool, and wrap ‘em up. Then just let ‘em thaw before reheating in a skillet. Easy. And quick…just what I’m looking for these days!

And hey…remember that taco seasoning from last week?

Yep, that’s totally going in these bad boys.

Adapted from Edible Perspective

Southwestern Style Veggie Burgers

Yield: 8 burgers

Ingredients

1 15-ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
3 cups cubed sweet potatoes (skin on), cooked
½ cup fresh or frozen corn
½ cup finely chopped onion
1 4-ounce can green chilis
½ cup cooked quinoa
6 tablespoons rolled oats
2 tablespoons ground flaxseed
½ teaspoon salt
1 heaping tablespoon taco seasoning
1 tablespoon olive oil

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease or line a large sheet pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, mash half of the black beans completely. Add in the remainder of the beans, lightly mashing just to combined (less than half of the beans should be left whole).
In a large bowl, mash the cooked sweet potato until each piece is mashed, but the mixture is not creamy.
In a food processor, pulse the rolled oats several times until the oats are mostly ground – you are looking for some of the mixture to be a flour consistency, while the rest is small pieces of oats.
Add the onion, green chilis, corn, black beans, quinoa, flaxseed, ground oats, salt, taco seasoning and olive oil to the sweet potatoes, mixing until just combined. Taste for seasoning, adding more salt and/or taco seasoning as needed.
Using a ½-cup measuring cup, portion the mixture into 8 balls. Flatten the balls into ½-inch thick patties, placing them on the prepared sheet pan.
Bake for 30 minutes, flipping after 15 minutes.
Serve warm with your favorite fixings!

Notes

To refrigerate or freeze burgers: Place on a cooling rack to cool completely. Store burgers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days; alternatively, wrap individual burgers first in plastic wrap, then in foil, and place in a zip-top bag in the freezer for up to 3 months. To reheat, allow frozen burgers to thaw completely. Head in a lightly greased pan over medium-high heat for 3-5 minutes per side, or until heated through.

Filed Under: Main dish, Sandwiches Tagged With: Allergy friendly, beans, Gluten-free, Healthy, Main dish, Oats, Quinoa, Sandwich, sweet potatoes, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian

Lemony Tahini Quinoa Salad

June 11, 2012 by Stephie 5 Comments

Did you know that it is possible to not only have a case of the Mondays, but to also have a case of Monday Hair?

That is totally what I have going on right now.

I’m choosing to blame my Monday Hair on a couple of things:

1.) I am in desperate need of a haircut, but won’t be getting one for another couple of weeks when I am home for my best friend’s wedding. And no, in answer to your next (likely nonexistant) question, I can’t get one prior to that because I am needy and picky and refuse to grow up and find a new hairdresser in the town where I actually live, and instead make the 3-hour trek to my parents’ house every so often so that I can get my hair done by the woman who has been cutting and coloring it for over a decade. It’s a hair comfort zone. Also, I have trust issues. (Among others, clearly.)

2.) My lack of central air means that my apartment gets so hot this time of year that by the time I have straightened the top layer of my hair, the bottom layer has already started to curl and frizz back into little ringlets. It’s a really cute look, let me tell you.

Looks like I am going to be sporting either the curly look or a braid from now until it snows again.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

I threw together this little quinoa salad last week when I needed a side to go with some baked falafel. I wanted something that would incorporate some of the flavors in the falafel without overpowering it. After doing some snooping, I found this dressing on 101 Cookbooks. I pretty much kept the dressing as it was and changed up the salad ingredients to things that better suited my whims at that moment.

Basically? It was easy as can be to throw together and perfect alongside the falafel. And straight out of the bowl at 10 pm. Yeah, my late-night snacking habits are weird, I know.

Also – I used a mixture of red and white quinoa to give the salad some pretty color, but you could certainly use any color that you have on hand!

Lemony Tahini Quinoa Salad

Yield: 4-6 servings

Adapted from 101 Cookbooks

Ingredients

1 cup uncooked quinoa
2 cups water
1 teaspoon kosher salt
¼ cup tahini paste
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons lemon zest
1 garlic clove
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons hot water
1 medium cucumber, peeled and diced
1 cup halved cherry tomatoes

Instructions

Rinse quinoa. Add to a medium pot with the water and 1 teaspoon of salt. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until cooked through. Remove from heat and set aside.
Using a large knife, smash the garlic clove. Peel, roughly mince, then sprinkle with ¼ teaspoon of salt. Use a fork to smash the salt and garlic together, creating a paste. If this seems difficult at first, allow the salt and garlic to hang out for a few minutes and try again. (It does not need to be a super smooth paste, you just want most of the large bits broken up.)
In a small bowl, whisk together the tahini, lemon juice, zest, garlic and olive oil. The mixture will be very thick – add hot water 1 tablespoon at a time until it comes to a consistency somewhat like that of yogurt. Give it a taste to check for seasoning, adding more salt if needed.
In a large bowl, toss the cooked quinoa with the cucumber and tomatoes. Add in the dressing, stirring to coat. Cover and chill before serving to allow the flavors time to meld. Will keep, covered in the refrigerator, for 3 days.

Filed Under: Salads, Side dishes Tagged With: Gluten-free, Healthy, Quinoa, Salad, Side dish, Vegan, Vegetarian

Mushroom and Pressed Apple Quinoa Risotto

February 15, 2012 by Stephie 1 Comment

A couple of things before we get to risotto…but we’ll get there, I promise.

1.) This past Saturday, I had the opportunity to volunteer with a program called Young Chefs at Young School. Every couple of Saturdays, an elementary school in one of the less-affluent neighborhoods near mine holds sports, science, reading and (of course) cooking programs for their students to attend. Several other volunteers and I spent the morning working with about twelve 4th and 5th grade students, teaching them about healthy eating habits (this past week’s topic was snacks) and basic cooking skills (we made a couple of healthier dips for veggies, and the kids got to take home what was left over to their families).

Now, I’m not choosing to tell you about this experience so that everyone will see that I got my good-deed card stamped this week. Instead, I’m telling you about this because I absolutely loved it. Not only did I get to work with a group of awesome kids who really seemed to learn a lot (they started out the morning saying how they only liked ice cream; by the time we left I asked them what they had learned and their collective response was, “Vegetables can be awesome!”), but I got to teach them something about which I am passionate. Volunteering doesn’t have to be a drain on your time and energy; there are numerous ways in which you can give your time doing something that you love!

If you are in the Chicago area, I encourage you to check out Chicago Cares. It’s a great site that allows you to browse volunteer opportunities by a number of filters and choose just the right one for you. You even register online, so all you have to do is show up on the date of your project! Getting plugged in to your community has never been easier.

2.) I have mentioned before that I work at a university. Well, for the next five days the school is being inhabited by Tibetan monks. Yep, you read that right. Tibetan monks.

Probably seems totally random, and it did to me, too, at first. But, as it turns out, they are here as part of an interfaith exchange (it is a Catholic university) and will be constructing a sand mandala during their time here. Sand mandalas are intricate pieces of art created out of colored sand. The construction of a sand mandala takes days and is ritualistically destroyed during a ceremony at the end of that time. The destruction symbolizes the temporary nature of life on earth, and the materials used in the mandala are ceremonially returned to nature so that they are never used twice.

I promise I had a reason for sharing this, too, other than the fact that I think it is super cool. Getting the chance to encounter other cultures – whether it be through chance, such as this encounter, or through travel – always causes me to stop and think about what we, as an American culture, consider to be important and, in fact, beautiful. According to our culture, which values speed, efficiency and permanence, taking days to create a piece of art that will simply be destroyed immediately probably seems like an enormous waste of time. But to these Tibetan Buddhists, the art symbolizes something much bigger, something that is intricately tied to their worldview. Our life on earth is indeed temporal and fleeting and, like the sand used in the mandalas, can be brushed away with the blink of an eye. But that does not mean that its creation is any less beautiful, that the work it takes for us to become the people we end up as is a waste of time. Rather, life’s ephemerality makes it that much more important for us to recognize its beauty while it is here, and to remember not to take anything beautiful for granted.

Whoa.

Things just got a little deep there, didn’t they?

I hope that got you to think a little bit, but if you need a bit of a brain break, I think I have just the thing for you: quinoa risotto.

Again, you read that right. Quinoa risotto.

I know, I know, how is it possible? Isn’t risotto made from arborio rice? Well, yes, traditionally it is. But, as it turns out, you can also make it – through essentially the same process – out of quinoa. The result is a little nuttier, and full of more essential nutrients than you would get out of a traditional risotto. Not that I have anything against traditional risotto – we are totally best friends – but if you are looking for a healthier twist, this might just be it.

In this version, I also changed things up a little by cooking the risotto with half stock and half pressed apple juice. Now, I’m going to get a little naggy here and insist that you pony up and by the pressed stuff for this. You can find it in the refrigerated section with the orange juice. I promise I wouldn’t insist on this if I didn’t feel it makes a difference, but the flavor of the pressed apple juice is akin to that of apple cider (which would be more than acceptable here, as well) and will really round out the flavor of the quinoa. It gives you a hint of fruity sweetness that makes your taste buds sit up and take notice.

And we all want our taste buds to sit up and take notice. Obviously.

Mushroom and Pressed Apple Quinoa Risotto

Yield: 2 main dish servings or 4 side dish servings

Ingredients

8 ounces baby portobello mushrooms, sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups vegetable or chicken stock
2 cups pressed apple juice or apple cider
1 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed according to package directions
⅓ cup dry white wine
½ cup shredded Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

In a saucepan, combine stock and apple juice. Bring to a low boil; reduce heat and maintain at a simmer.
Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the sliced mushrooms, sauteeing until softened. Remove from pan.
Turn heat to medium and add the other tablespoon of oil. Add the quinoa, cooking for 1 to 2 minutes. Add the white wine, stirring constantly until the liquid has cooked off.
Add 1-2 ladles of your warmed stock and juice mixture to the quinoa. Allow to simmer, stirring constantly, until the liquid has evaporated. Repeat this step until all of the liquid has been added. Taste the risotto to make sure that the quinoa is cooked through. If not, you may add more stock, juice, or warm water – just a bit at a time – until the quinoa is cooked.
Stir in cooked mushrooms and Parmesan cheese. Taste for seasoning; add salt and pepper as needed (make sure to taste before seasoning, as using a salty cheese will lessen the need for added salt!).

Filed Under: Main dish, Side dishes Tagged With: Gluten-free, Main dish, Mushrooms, Quinoa, Side dish, Vegetarian

Monday Breakfast Series: Vegan Quinoa Breakfast Cookies

January 16, 2012 by Stephie 7 Comments

True life: I have always been a little bit skeptical of the vegan thing.

Even though I grew up in a dairy-conscious household (having a severely lactose intolerant father will do that) and I have recently had my own slew of digestive issues to face, I have always been a huge fan of all things dairy. The idea of giving up my milk on my cereal? Preposterous. Never having cheese (CHEESE!) again? Positively ludicrous. And how the heck am I expected to bake without using eggs? The mind reels.

But, then again, there was a time when I swore I could never be a vegetarian and I now find myself making vegetarian meals and searching for vegetarian recipes more often than not.

Now, don’t get me wrong; I have no plans to fully convert to a vegetarian lifestyle, if only because the idea of not having lamb at Easter causes me more mental anguish than trying to convey to the heavily-accented customer service representative at the cable company that I do not wish to pay for On-Demand, and that as long as I have Food Network I am happy so just please provide me with cheaper cable! (Phew, guess I needed to get that one off my chest.)

With that being said, it is hard to argue the benefits of a well-balanced vegan or vegetarian diet. (Emphasis on well-balanced, here; simply turning into a rabbit is not good for your health. Unless you are actually a rabbit.) And so, I am going to make a more concerted effort to branch out and include more vegan recipes here on the blog. You should all also know that I am making an effort to cut back on dairy milk in my own personal diet; again, I do not plan to cut it out entirely, but I do recognize that, for a number of reasons, I could benefit from consuming less of it. I have recently started buying almond milk and actually like how it tastes (not something I was expecting), so we will see how this goes.

img 0371 Monday Breakfast Series: Vegan Quinoa Breakfast Cookies

Crumb snatcher.

For now, I bring you a double-duty recipe: the second Monday Breakfast Series recipe AND my first adventure into vegan baking! (As a side note, thank you all for your positive response to my first Monday Breakfast Series post. It is encouraging to get such great feedback. Keep it coming, and feel free to send me requests or suggestions of things you would like to see on here!)

The original recipe for these quinoa breakfast cookies was not vegan, so I had some substituting to do. The biggest swap was the eggs. What was I going to use as a binder if I couldn’t use eggs?

img 0364 Monday Breakfast Series: Vegan Quinoa Breakfast Cookies

1 tablespoon ground flax + 3 tablespoons water = 1 flax egg!

While there are a few different vegan options, it would seem that the most popular is using flax eggs. Using ground flax and water, you can create a sort of “goo” (don’t think about it too much) that closely resembles the consistency of an egg and will serve as your binder. Remember! This is a substitution for baking, not general cooking, and is apparently best suited for heartier baked goods such as dense cookies, muffins, quick breads, etc., as opposed to more delicate ones such as cupcakes.

Of course, you do not have to make these cookies vegan. They are still full of good things for you: protein-packed quinoa, whole wheat flour, oats and dried cranberries all play a role here. And they are low-calorie, with each cookie containing just under 150 calories (I calculated the vegan version to contain around 130 calories each). The one downside is that they do contain a fair amount of sugar, something I might consider playing with in the future but will leave as-is for now.

I personally think these dense, chewy cookies are delicious. They keep wonderfully in the freezer – in fact, they taste almost as good straight from the freezer as they do straight from the oven – and are perfect to pair with a quick smoothie or cup of yogurt in the morning. Or take them to work for a mid-morning snack! The possibilities are endless.

Vegan Quinoa Breakfast Cookies

Yield: 2 dozen cookies

Adapted from Bon Appetit

Ingredients

1½ cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ cup (1 stick) vegan margarine (such as Earth Balance), room temperature
¼ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup brown sugar, packed
¼ cup light agave nectar
2 tablespoons ground flaxseed meal
⅓ cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon almond extract
1 cup cooked quinoa, cooled
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1 cup dried cranberries
½ cup slivered almonds (I used sliced, and they were fine)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
In a small bowl, whisk together ground flaxseed and water. Allow to set for at least five minutes while preparing the other ingredients.
In a medium bowl, combine flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
In a large bowl, beat margarine, both sugars and agave with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add flax egg mixture and extracts; beat until pale and fluffy, about two minutes. Beat in flour mixture, ½ cup at a time. Stir in quinoa, oats, cranberries and almonds.
Spoon dough in two-tablespoon portions onto prepared sheets, spacing 1 inch apart. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden. Allow to cool for 1-2 minutes on baking sheet, transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for one day, or freeze for up to a month.

Filed Under: Breakfast, Cookies Tagged With: Almonds, Baked goods, Breakfast, Cookies, Cranberries, Healthy, Quinoa, Vegan, Whole wheat

Old school, new style

November 15, 2011 by Stephie 5 Comments

Well friends, I am very sorry to say it, but last week we started heading into cold-weather season here in Chicago. After several days of rainy nastiness (during which I inadvertently spilled an entire bottle of water on the passenger seat of my car; that is certainly not going to dry any time soon), cold windiness decided to make a visit, too.

I guess it just goes along with the Christmas music and holiday decorations that have started to ~~sneak their way into~~ bombard Targets and department stores everywhere. And if you’re wondering, I’m still holding out on both of those things – I do believe in celebrating Thanksgiving before getting to Christmas, after all!

So what was my first move when I started to feel the cool nip in the air last week? Well, it wasn’t turning the heat on in my apartment – thanks to living on the 6th floor, I seem to be getting everyone else’s heat and am still sleeping with a fan running at night. Go figure.

Casserole. That was my first move.

After a full day of work, a quick run to Target and working out, I can’t tell you how nice it was to know that I had a casserole waiting for me at home. I threw everything together in the morning, tucked it away in the refrigerator and just had to pop it in the oven when I got home.

And the best part? This casserole is a healthier twist on a classic favorite: Broccoli Rice Casserole, allow me to introduce you to the new kid in town, Broccoli QUINOA Casserole!

That’s right, quinoa! Since quinoa has a lot of the same texture as rice, it is the perfect swap-out in this recipe. Plus, using quinoa lowers the starch-content significantly (thus cutting out the heaviness that can often occur in rice-based casseroles) and brings protein to the party.

I was looking for a one-pan dinner (I knew I would be way too lazy to fix anything else by dinner time), so I added some tuna to my casserole. Feel free to leave this out if you are anti-tuna or are looking to make this a vegetarian dish. I just happen to like tuna, so I went with it.

This casserole was comforting, just filling enough without weighing me down and fed me for a couple of days. Another win for me.

Old school, new style

Yield: 4-5 servings

Adapted slightly from Eating Well…Living Well

Ingredients

¾ cup uncooked quinoa
1½ cups water
¼ teaspoon salt
2 cups fresh broccoli, cooked OR frozen broccoli, thawed
1 can tuna, drained (optional)
1 can (10 ounces) condensed cream of mushroom soup
⅓ cup Greek yogurt
2 tablespoons milk
1¼ cups shredded cheddar cheese
½ teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon black pepper
¼ teaspoon paprika
Pinch each of nutmeg and salt
Shredded Parmesan cheese

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8×8 inch casserole dish with cooking spray.
Rinse quinoa. Place in a pot with water and ¼ teaspoon of salt. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat medium-low and simmer for 18-20 minutes, or until water is gone. Fluff with a fork and allow to cool slightly. (Alternatively, use 1½ cups leftover cooked quinoa.)
In a large bowl, combine soup, yogurt, milk, cheese, sugar, paprika, pepper and nutmeg. Add cooked quinoa, broccoli and tuna. Check for seasoning – I found mine needed a pinch of salt and a wee bit more pepper! Spoon into prepared casserole dish and sprinkle with a few tablespoons of Parmesan cheese. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until the top is bubbly and golden.