Quinoa crazy

Have you discovered how supremely wonderful quinoa is or are you, like me, late to the party too? I recently had my first taste of quinoa and I was blown away. Blown away. Yes I said it twice. I've been eating very little else since, trying to incorporate quinoa in my meals at least three times a week. Too much? No way. 

Here are some things I've recently learnt about quinoa:

1. Quinoa is pronounced Keen-Wah not Kee-No-Wah. 

2. Quinoa is not a grain. It doesn't come from the family of grasses like wheat or barley but rather from the family of plants like spinach and beets! So what is it if not a grain? Quinoa is a seed. And it's super nutritious. Its a terrific source of protein which is important if you too are a vegetarian/vegan and have limited sourced of protein. 

3. Though it has only recently become "trendy", quinoa has been cultivated by the Andeans in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and Columbia for over 7,000 years.  

4. It's freakishly delicious. Yes, healthy food has, for some reason, obtained the nefarious reputation for being tasteless and boring but quinoa is just wonderful both flavour wise as well as texturally. Especially when cooked in stock or salted (and herb or spice infused) water - as the seed absorbs the flavours as it cooks. It has a nuttiness and a crunch that's just delightful.

5. There are over 100 varieties of quinoa but what we get are the common trio of the white, black and red seeds.  

6. It takes just 15 minutes to cook (and another 15 minutes to rest!).

7. When not cooked properly, quinoa can have a slightly bitter after taste. This bitterness comes from the coating around the seed which is actually a layer of Saponins, an organic chemical that keeps predators away. How do you get around this? Simple, rinse or wash the seeds thoroughly (as you would rice) before cooking them.

8. You cook quinoa as you would rice: one cup of quinoa is cooked in two cups of water/stock. To enhance it's flavour however, I like to toast the seeds (once they've been rinsed) in a little olive oil for a few minutes. 

9. South Americans actually use quinoa to brew beer. I haven't figures this out but I wouldn't mind having a go at a quinoa beer!

10. I've saved the best for last: it isn't fattening! Whoooopadeedooda. a 1/4 cup of dry, uncooked quinoa has only 174 calories of which 24 are from protein, 12 from sugars and the rest complex carbohydrates, fiber and healthy fats! 

While quinoa can be used as a rice-replacement, I usually just add it to salads.  I used 1/2 cup of dry quinoa for these two salads below.

Quinoa

1/2 cup dry white quinoa

1 cup vegetable stock

1/2 tbsp olive oil

Place the dry quinoa in a saucepan and wash it under running water, rubbing the seed to wash off the bitter coating. Strain.

Heat the oil in a skillet and add the strained quinoa. Toast in over medium heat for a few minutes. 

Transfer the quinoa into a saucepan and add the stock and heat it on the stove. When the stock starts to boil, turn down the heat, cover and cook for 15 minutes. 

After 15 minutes, turn off the heat, take the pot off the stove and let the quinoa sit in the covered pot for 15 minutes. Then, using a fork, gently fluff up the seeds so they don't clump together.  

The 1/2 cup of dry quinoa should yield at least 2 cups now!

Warm Broccoli and Corn Salad with Quinoa 

1 cup cooked quinoa

2 cups broccoli florets, blanched in salt water

1/3 cup steamed sweet corn

1 cup green pea shoots

1/4 cup grated cheese 

1 garlic clove, minced

a large handful of walnuts, toasted

2 tbsp Olive oil

salt and pepper

Set aside 1/2 the broccoli to make a pesto. Add the broccoli, cheese, olive oil, garlic, half the walnuts and blitz in the blender to make a pesto. Season with salt.

Add the quinoa, corn, remaining broccoli, pea shoots, remaining walnuts in a bowl big enough for you to toss the salad in. Add the pesto and olive oil and gently toss so everything is coated with them. Season and serve.

Warm Brussel Sprouts, Mushroom and Cranberry Quinoa Salad

1 cup cooked quinoa

6 brussel sprouts, blanched and sliced thin

6 mushrooms (I used fresh button mushrooms)

2 tbsp dried cranberries

2 tbsp sunflower seeds, toasted

1/2 tsp Dijon mustard

Olive oil

salt and pepper

Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a skillet. Add the mushrooms and saute till the moisture leaves the the shrooms start to brown. Add the sliced sprouts and cook for a couple of minutes and season. Remove the vegetables off the heat.

Place the quinoa, cooked vegetables, cranberries and sunflower seeds in a bowl. 

Whisk the mustard and about 2 tbsp of olive oil together in a separate bowl.

Pour the oil into the salad and toss. Season. 

Beet Burgers

It's Mother's Day tomorrow and though I'm not one for large-scale celebrations of  intimate moments, I like this particular celebration because I think mothers can never be celebrated enough. 

So this post is dedicated to my mother. Mum, you were right. Beetroot is lovely. 

I really never thought I'd say this. If you had asked me a year ago whether I'd like to eat beetroot, I would have pretended to gag so hard you'd be sorry you asked. But today? Today I sheepishly admit that I love beetroot.

My mother used to get really annoyed with me because I used to (and still do) proclaim how much I hated some vegetable (or meat when I used to eat meat) or other without even giving it a fair shot. I dismissed eggplant as being yucky simply because I hated the mushy texture of the cooked vegetable; I retreated when my mother offered me a slice of fried tempeh because it looked ... well, it looked quite strange. 

The turning point was an appetizer of roasted beetroot with goats cheese which I ate at some restaurant in London last year when I was there on a work trip. The good thing about work trips? We always eat well. Well, almost always. I was skeptical when I ordered the dish. I had little choice as it was one of the few vegetarian dishes on the menu and I wanted something light. The only other option was a couple of pasta dishes which I wasn't to keen on.

When my plate came, I cut a small piece of the beetroot (it looked so beautiful, the deep crimson of the beets against the white of the cheese and the green basil leaves in between ... awesome) and hesitantly bit into it.

It was love at first bite. I couldn't believe it. It was sweet and tasted like caramel and together with the creamy and slightly salty cheese, it was heaven.

I was turned and have been cooking with beetroot since and these beetroot burgers are a testament to that.

Beet isn't the only ingredient in these patties, but it is the star. I actually used beetroot in a patty for the first time when I was doing a story about vegetarian burgers for my column in Star2. I used beetroot because I wanted my patties to have the pink colour of a hamburger. NOT because I was craving meat but just for fun. But when I tasted the burger, I was amazed at how much of an impact the beetroot had in terms of flavour and texture. Encouraged, I tried different combinations (the first was beet + mock meat + broccoli), preferably a patty with just vegetables and no mock meats or tofu. And each time, the patty turned out well because (I am convinced, being the beetroot lover that I am now) of the crimson veg.

For the recipes, apart from the beetroot, everything else was an experiment so you can really add and subtract any of the vegetables that I have included. The important elements are the binders (I used breadcrumbs) and one ingredient that can bulk up your patty -- I used edamame in one instance, mock meat in another and potato in the third. Of all three, I liked the potato patty the least and will next time for for some other bean instead.


Beet Burgers
1 cup beetroot, diced very small
1 onion, chopped fine
1 clove garlic, chopped fine
1/2 cup roasted broccoli, chopped small (optional)
1/2 cup edamame/any other bean, pureed
1/2 cup roasted cauliflower, chopped
1/4 cup red pepper, diced small
a handful of toasted nuts, chopped fine (optional)
parsley, chopped fine
 breadcrumbs (enough to bind the patty together)
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
salt and pepper (or any other seasoning you prefer)
Chilli flakes/powder (optional)
1/3 cup cheese

Mix all the ingredients together to form patties.
Chill for 30 mins so the patties harden a little. Heat some Olive oil in a skillet and brown the patties on both sides, about 3 -5 mins each side and then pop then in the oven (200C) for 30 mins or till they're firm and are cooked through.

Edamame, Broccoli and Cream Cheese Sandwich

Is edamame (young/green soy beans) really the secret of Victoria Beckham's enviably stick thin figure? Well, some years ago, the former Spice Girl revealed that her edamame-rich diet kept her slim. She let herself cheat on a single cupcake once in a while but mainly, she feasted on edamame, strawberries and lettuce. 

No, I am not about to go on the Posh diet quite yet but I must say she chose a delicious and extremely nutritious vegetable as her staple. Known as the "magic bean", edamame is rich in amino acids and is a protein source. It's also high in fibre, rich in vitamin C and folic acid and is known to lower your cholesterol. 

Most importantly, the young beans are delicious: nutty and sweet. I love edamame. The Japanese consume a lot of edamame: boiled and seasoned lightly with salt, the beans are a great accompaniment to beer or sake and a delicious appetizer before a meal of sushi.

It also makes for a delicious dip, a great base for vegetarian burger patties (keep and eye out for my next post) and a fantastic sandwich filling. 

Edamame forms the base of this sandwich filling.

Step one: Boil about a cup of beans for ten minutes or so. Remove the beans from their pods and roughly mashed them.  Season with salt, black pepper and finely chopped garlic. Next, mix in 3 tbsp of cream cheese and 1/4 cup grated carrots to the bean mash. What you get it is a thick spread. At this point, with a couple of drops of lemon juice, you could it  into a dip too but I'd suggest you try it in a sandwich first. I spread a thick layer of the bean mash (make sure you leave some half bean chunks in, for some bite) on the base of my sandwich.

That was step one. Oh, I forgot to mention, step zero is to get good bread. Good, sturdy bread that won't dissolve once you load it with filling. I used the Zucchini and Cheese Loaf I made yesterday.

Step two: The next step is adding texture to the sandwich. No one really likes a completely mushy sandwich, right? I like a little crunch too and so, instead of lettuce, I added roasted 1/2 cup of broccoli florets — just toss the broccoli florets in olive oil and roast them for about 15 to 20 minutes and season with salt and pepper — on top of the edamame spread. Have you tried roasted broccoli? It's really fantastic.


Next comes the cheese layer.

Grilled cheese sandwiches have a huge appeal for me. I toasted my bread and then added a generous layer of  mozzarella on the top slice of bread and popped it under the grill for a few minutes for it to melt.

At the same time, I toasted a few walnuts (you could use almonds or cashews), chopped them fine and sprinkled them over the broccoli.

When the cheese has melted, press the top layer over the sandwich and you're good to go!

Broccoli Pesto Pasta

It's been an unbelievably tiring week. My body is weary, my mind's a blank. My plan for the weekend? Vegetating in front of the television, reading Paul Auster's Sunset Park (I started it four months ago and am barely past the third chapter. Shame!) and ... nope, that's it. That's my plan for the weekend.

While I generally find cooking and baking quite relaxing, I really couldn't muster up the energy to cook an elaborate meal this weekend. Forget about an elaborate meal; I didn't even want to peal and chop an onion. And, don't be shocked but I didn't even feel like brewing m own tea — I used a three-in-one mix (where you just add boiling water to a premix of tea, milk and sugar).

Lazy, lazy weekend.

Now back when I was living on my own, this wouldn't have been a problem — I'd be content to just eat a bowl of cereal for dinner or a tub of yoghurt. Or a bowl of nuts. Or some instant noodles. Or just a bag of nuts. But I don't live alone and, tired as I am, I'd feel incredibly guilty if I served my husband a bowl of muesli for lunch.

So, I settled on the next best thing: I decided to make a dish that looked impressive and tasted phenomenal but took hardly any time or effort.

I made pasta. And for the sauce, I made pesto. I seriously thank God for pasta and I thank the Italians, particularly the Genoans for their pesto.

I find pesto to be the most incredible sauce ever created. Ever.  Its simply mind-blowing how much flavour you can get from simply crushing basil leaves, garlic, Parmesan cheese, toasted (pine) nuts and mixing the paste with olive oil. Mind-blowing.  And, you can use a blender to get this done although I've been told that to get the best out of your pesto, you have to chop/pound the ingredients by hand, this way yielding a slightly chunkier paste. I used a blender, of course. 

Traditional pesto is made with basil leaves but there are numerous variations: from sun-dried tomatoes to parsley to spinach ... you name it. Pesto incidentally means to pound or crush and therefore these variations may feature different main ingredients but the process is the same and they almost always incorporate the garlic, cheese, nuts and olive oil that are part of the original recipe. So far, I've stuck to making herb-based pestos: basil, parsley and coriander are my favourites. Oh. And once, when my friend bought me a tub of sun dried tomatoes from Italy, I made a sun-dried tomato pesto. Twas delicious, of course.

Today, I made broccoli pesto. Yeah, I balked at the idea too at first but I was eager to give it a go. I wasn't disappointed, let me tell you, If you ever want to trick someone into liking broccoli, this is the way to go. The pesto was delicious. Broccoli has a very distinct taste (which I love) but it is hardly overpowering in this pesto, despite it being the main ingredient. 

All in all, it took me 15 mins to cook lunch. That wasn't too painful... 

Broccoli Pesto Pasta

1 cup broccoli florets. steamed until soft (but not mushy)
1/2 cup flat leaf parsley leaves
1/3-1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
3 tbsp toasted pine nuts (or walnuts, sunflower seeds, peanuts, etc)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Pasta

Blend (or pound/chop extremely finely) the broccoli, parsley and garlic until finely minced. Add the cheese and pulse a few times. Gently let the oil stream in as you blend until the oil is incorporated and pulse a few more times to incorporate the oil with the paste. Season.

Cook the pasta. Toss it in some olive oil and then coat as generously as you wish with the pesto. Garnish with some chilli flakes.

Roasted Vegetable Puff

Marty and I have been making sandwiches for sale for over a year. Every Monday for close to 16 months (save for the weeks we are both out of town), we deliver our Crazy Juliet sandwiches to our colleagues. It's been great. But lately we've been feeling a little sandwiched-out. We needed some time apart, us and our sandwiches. We needed something fresh. So, we started introducing pies, puffs and quiches to our weekly menus.

As such, I've been experimenting with various vegetarian puffs and pastries. It's been quite challenging, really. After all, how many types of vegetarian pies and puffs can there be? Pies and/or puffs that are substantial enough for lunch. Pies and puffs that won't go soggy by lunch time (we deliver them around mid morning). It's been a ride.

So my kitchen became a test kitchen for all kinds of vegetarian pies and puffs. The first one to graduate from the test kitchen is this Roasted Vegetable Puff. This is really a very basic vegetable puff. It has no exotic vegetables or cheese to boast off. In fact, as horrific as this may sound, I used processed mozzarella cheese. I don't usually buy processed cheese but I had a packet in my fridge from I can't remember when which I wanted to use up. 

Still the puff was really good, proof that the simple things in life are usually very, very good.

The secret? Good puff pastry and roasted vegetables. 

Puff pastry is rich, flaky, buttery and soft. It is good enough to be eaten on its own (think croissants) but is also lovely as a light crust to coat a pie, sweet or savoury. I tried making puff pastry once and it was awfully satisfying: I'm not gonna kid you and say it was easy. No, it was pretty laborious. The wonderful 

flakiness of the pastry comes from the many layers of dough and butter that is folded and folded and folded some more (sometimes more than a hundred folds go into a block of puff pastry). I made it because I was curious about the process and I wanted to see how successful my home made puff pastry would turn out. It was, thankfully, a success. But, I never have made it again because it's so much easier to buy good pre-packed, ready-made all-butter puff pastry. 

Now the other reason this vege puff is so tasty is because the vegetables were roasted. I don't know about you but I love the flavour of roasted vegetables. They taste sweeter as they caramelise so nicely in the oven. All you need is to coat them in olive oil and then season them with salt and pepper. That's it, really. That's all you need.

I selected my vegetables carefully. Potatoes would be an easy way to make the puff filling but I am not a huge fan of spuds and so I struck them off the list of possible ingredients. Spinach? Nah. Carrots? Next time. Red peppers? Nah. 

Here's what I ended up with: eggplant, broccoli, pumpkin, cauliflower and mushrooms. 

Oh! And the cheese, of course. 

ROASTED VEGETABLE PUFF

Makes 4

2 cups broccoli florets

1 cup cauliflower florets

1 cup pumpkin, cut into 2cm cubes

1 cups mushrooms (shiitake, Swiss brown, button..) halved or quartered (size should match the pumpkin)

1 medium eggplant, sliced, salted and drained.

1 cup shredded Mozzarella Cheese (or 4 slices of the processed stuff that I used)

Olive Oil

Salt and pepper

1/4 cup vegetable stock

1/2 tbsp corn starch diluted in 2 tbsp water.

1/4 cup milk

Puff pastry

Preheat the oven to 200C. 

Mix all the vegetables in a bowl and coat them in about 2 tbsp of olive oil. (The vegetables should be cut around the same size so they cook equally.)

Transfer the vegetables to a rimmed baking tray: make sure they are laid out in one layer (to make sure they roast evenly). Season with salt and pepper. 

Bake for about 40 mins, turning them over midway.

Let the vegetables cool. 

Heat the stock in a small saucepan. Add the diluted corn starch and stir over low heat until the stock thickens — about 5-7 mins over low heat. Turn off the heat and add the vegetables into the thickened stock. Leave to soak/

Meanwhile, lightly flour your work surface and cut the puff pastry into 8 squares. My squares were about 8cm x 8cm.

Place one square on your floured work surface. Spread your cheese on the square ad then spoon the roasted vegetables onto the square (don't scoop out too much juice or the puff will get soggy), leaving about a 1/2 cm boarder on all four sides. Brush the boarder with milk. 

Take another  square and place it atop. You may need to gently (I stress, gently) stretch the pastry over the filling so that the top and bottom squares meet. Press the edges together and seal with a fork (this gives the puff a nice patterned edge).

Make a slit on the top of the puff for the steam to escape when baking. Now, brush the top of the puff with milk. 

(If you want to decorate the puff, use a small biscuit cutter in any shape you like: 8 cut outs in total/ 2 per puff).  Place the cutouts on the puff (how you arrange them is up to your artistic vision) and brush the shapes with milk as well.)

Repeat with the other 3 puffs.

Bake for 15 to 20 mins or till the the puffs and nice and golden and the flaky layers have risen. 

New day, new diet. Why do i do it?

I have been on a diet since I was 16 -- I am now ... 37. Yup. Don't roll your eyes because I know I need help.

The latest diet I am trying is pretty controversial. It's not really a diet, more a way of eating "healthier" -- therein lies the controversy. Ever heard of Dr Peter D'Adamo? Sometime in the late 1990s, he write a book titled Eat Right 4 Your Blood Type where he recommends food to suit your blood type. His theory (based on studies he and his father before him had done) is that not all blood types react with food the same way. If you eat food that is not quite suitable or agreeable with your blood type, you suffer the consequences. Not serious consequences, exactly ... but you don't feel the best you could and your metabolic rate could be slow because of it.



Ok. I ain't gonna make this post a summary of his study -- check him out on the web if you want.

I am a type-B (blood that is) and although most people with this  blood type have hardy and flecible digestive systems and can therefore enjoy a wider variety of food, it's not a very friendly blood type for vegetarians as many vegetarian staples like soy and lentils are not type B friendly.

What? Just my luck cos  I am a vegetarian!

Should I stick to it?

I decide to give it a try .. for a month. And am going to chart my meals for this month with food thats beneficial for type Bs.

My first meal is a Broccoli and Mushroom soup with cheese (cos dairy is good for me, thank god)

Broccoli and Mushroom Soup ♣

2 cups broccoli, cut small

1 cup white button mushrooms, cut small

leek, 3 inch, sliced

3 - 4 cups vegetable stock

butter

1 cup milk

parmesan cheese

salt and pepper

ground oregano

Melt butter in saucepan. Add leek and saute till soft. Add mushrooms and broccoli and cook for about 5 -7 mins. Add stock and cook till it simmers. Add milk and keep on stove till it simmers. Remove from heat. Blend. Return to heat, add cheese, salt, pepper and a dash of ground oregano.