Everything Quinoa Salad

I love quinoa salads.  There, I said it.  I realize I already have a few other quinoa salad recipes on my blog, but I keep coming up with new versions of the quinoa+beans+vegetables and/or fruits formula.  Today I made a salad that was sort of tropical, because it has some mango and plantain, but it’s special because it really has a little of everything.  Raisins, peas, mango, plantains, red and green onion, and more.  It also has a lime juice-based dressing, which I adore.  There is no super strong flavor in this salad.  It’s really a mix a many equally wonderful flavors and textures.

Ingredients

1 cup quinoa, rinsed and drained

2 cups water

1/2 tsp sea salt

2 cups of cooked chickpeas, or 1 can, rinsed and drained

1 small mango, diced

1/2 red bell pepper, diced

2/3 cup chopped cilantro

1/4 cup raisins

1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed

4 scallions, sliced thinly

1/4 cup chopped red onioin

1/2 sliced steamed or sauteed plantain

Pepper and salt to taste

Juice of 2 limes, about 1/4 cup

2 T extra virgin olive oil

1 T red wine vinegar

1 T agave nectar or honey

Instructions

Cook the quinoa (this is a good step to do the day before, since the quinoa needs to cool completely).  Bring the water and salt to a boil, add the quinoa, and turn down to medium low heat.  Cover, and cook for about 20 minutes, or until the water is completely absorbed.  Set aside to cool.

Combine chickpeas, cooled quinoa, mango, pepper, cilantro, raisins, plantain, peas, red onion, and green onion.  Make the dressing.  Combine the lime juice, olive oil, vinegar, and agave nectar in a bowl and whisk together.  Add to the salad and mix until well-combined.  Taste, and add salt if needed.  Add pepper to taste.

Colombian Beans

This recipe is loosely based on the Colombian-Style Red Beans from Terry Hope Romero’s Viva Vegan, though I made several small changes.  I’ve been intrigued about traveling to Colombia, and until I can actually go, I plan to make Colombian food!  So far I’ve made these beans and arepas (like really thick corn tortillas–heaven!  I’ll post about those some other day).  I made a special trip to my local Fiesta Supermarket, which sells anything Latin you can imagine.  Previously I had searched for the beans I needed for this dish, bola roja or cargamanto beans, which are both common in Colombian cooking, in several grocery stores.  However, Fiesta seems to be the only store in Austin that carries these beans, though they can also be ordered online.  I bought a bag of the Goya brand bola roja beans, and they are so beautiful!  And they are definitely bola roja (red ball)-shaped.  They are definitely more expensive than other varieties of red beans, but totally worth it, at least for the novelty factor.

I cooked my own beans for this, but if you are pressed for time use canned red beans for this recipe.  Beans can be cooked a day or two ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator until you are ready to complete the remaining steps.

Ingredients

8 oz. dry bola roja or cargamanto beans, or 2 cans of red beans, rinsed and drained (should be about 4 cups of cooked beans)

1-2 T olive oil

1/2 large green bell pepper, chopped

1 medium yellow or white onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 medium carrot, peeled and chopped

1 tsp dried oregano

1 1/2 tsp paprika

1 tsp ground cumin

3-4 cups vegetable broth or water

Salt to taste

Freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

To cook the beans:

Soak the beans in plenty of water for at least 3-4 hours, or overnight.  When ready to cook, drain and rinse the soaked beans.  Place in a medium to large pot, cover with water (about 5 or 6 cups of water).  Turn the burner on high and bring the beans to a boil.  Once the beans start to boil, turn the heat down to medium low, cover, and let cook for about 2 hours.  Check occasionally to ensure there is enough water.  Beans are done once tender. 

To prepare the final dish

Heat the oil over medium heat.  Add the pepper, onion, garlic, and carrot.  Cook for around 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add the oregano, paprika, cumin, and then the beans and water or broth.  Add salt, about 1 tsp to start.  You can always add more later if needed.  Turn the heat to high and bring to a boil.  Once boiling, turn down to medium low, cover, and cook for about 30 minutes.  Remove from heat, taste and add salt if needed. 

Simple Cabbage Salad

I make different variations of cabbage salad quite often.  This latest version I made today based on ingredients I had around, including fresh dill, which I’d never used for this type of salad before.  I tend to think of cabbage salads as going well with Latin food, and dill is not what I think of when I think of Latin food.  I bought some at the farmers’ market yesterday to use for the borscht I plan to make sometime this week, but it’s really too much dill for one recipe.  A tip I always give people about fresh herbs is to use them in salads.  They really do add a lot of flavor.  Here, I use cilantro and dill.

Salad

4-5 cups shredded cabbage (either buy the pre-shredded bagged kind or shred your cabbage using a box grater or food processor)

1 medium carrot, shredded

1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped (don’t bother to tear the leaves from the stems–use the stems too)

1/2 cup fresh dill, chopped

4 scallions, thinly sliced, using the green parts too

1 cup grape tomatoes (I recommend keeping these out of the refrigerator and adding them upon serving the salad.  Refrigerated tomatoes are not very good.)

1/2 large avocado, sliced

Combine all ingredients.  Add avocado upon serving.  Do not add the avocado directly to the salad if you think you will have leftovers.  Next, make the dressing.

Dressing

Juice of one lemon

Juice of one large lime

3 T extra virgin olive oil

1 T agave nectar or honey

1/2 tsp sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Add all ingredients in a bowl and whisk.  Add to the salad and toss.

Gluten-Free Buckwheat Pancakes with Strawberry Jam

I made these pancakes last week on my snow day, when all of Austin basically shut down due to ice and snow.  They were a perfect antidote to the cold, along with a steaming cup of coffee.  This recipe is from Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s Vegan Brunch. I have been experimenting a bit with gluten-free baked goods.  The ingredients are almost the same as Isa’s recipe, though the instructions are not word for word.  They turned out quite well, and I’m excited to try more gluten-free recipes.  Any syrup or whatever you put on pancakes works of course, though I used some of the strawberry jam I made last May after picking pounds and pounds of them at a local pick-your-own farm.

Ingredients

1/2 cup buckwheat flour

1/2 cup oat flour (recipe calls for 1/4 cup quinoa flour and 1/4 cup corn flour, but I had neither)

2 T tapioca flour, arrowroot powder, or cornstarch (I used arrowroot)

1 T ground flax

1 T baking powder

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup almond milk or other nondairy milk

1/2 cup water

2 T brown rice syrup or maple syrup

2 T safflower oil or other neutral oil, like canola

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Extra oil or cooking spray for the pan or griddle.

Preparation

Mix the dry ingredients together in a medium bowl.  Add the wet ingredients and whisk together.  Let sit for about 10 minutes.

While the batter sits, heat your skillet or griddle over medium heat.  Add a bit of oil or cooking spray to your pan (you may need to add additional oil or cooking spray between pancakes to prevent them from sticking).  Use approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake.  Cook for 2-3 minutes on each side.  Adjust the heat if the pancakes are taking a long time to brown (up) or if the outside gets too dark before the inside is cooked.  Serve with jam or fruit butter, honey, maple syrup, almond butter, or your favorite pancake topping.  Store any leftovers either in the refrigerator if you plan to eat them within a few days, or freeze them.

Roasted Broccoli and Rice Salad with Tahini Lemon Dressing

This is one of those improvisational dishes that turned out well.  It is an iteration of the grain/bean/vegetable template that makes a satisfying and healthful meal.  I cooked up some brown rice for this ahead of time, though if I had any leftover cooked grain I would have used that.  Quinoa, for example, would make an excellent replacement for the brown rice, as would millet or bulgar wheat.  In place of broccoli you could use cauliflower or any vegetable really, depending on what you might need to use up or what’s in season.  The dressing has become a favorite of mine–a very simple combination of olive oil, tahini, and lemon juice.  In place of tofu, any bean would work, particularly chickpeas.

Ingredients

Salad

2 cups cooked brown rice

1/2 cup frozen corn, thawed for a minute in the microwave

1/4 cup chopped walnuts or almonds

1/4 cup chopped sun dried tomatoes

1/2 cup chopped red onion

1/4 cup chopped kalamata olives

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

1 lb broccoli

Olive oil

Salt to taste

6-8 oz. extra firm tofu or 1 1/2 cups cooked beans, such as chickpeas

Dressing

2 T tahini

2 T extra virgin olive oil

Juice of one lemon

2 twists freshly ground black pepper

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 400 F.   Prepare the broccoli by washing it and cutting it into small trees.  Toss with olive oil and salt (about a tablespoon of oil) on a cookie sheet or glass baking pan (I prefer the cookie sheet–easier to clean).  Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the broccoli is tender.

While the broccoli is roasting, prepare the other components of the salad.  Chop the walnuts, tomatoes, onion, parsley, and olives, and add to the rice in a medium bowl.  Microwave the corn for 1 minute on a small plate or in a bowl.  Add to the salad.  Make the dressing by whisking the tahini, olive oil, pepper, and lemon juice together.  Toss with the salad.

Mix in the broccoli and tofu.  Serve.

Smoky Black Bean Quinoa Salad

I recently started volunteering at the Sustainable Food Center.  My first major task was helping with a project to test several recipes for the revision of the Happy Kitchen cookbook, and important part of the SFC’s Happy Kitchen cooking class program.  I picked Smoky Black Bean Salad and Cranberry Sauce.  I had a lot of fun doing this and testing the recipes with different groups to get their feedback.  This particular recipe I’ve made my own, by upping the chipotle and cilantro, and adding some more color with the carrot and red bell pepper.  The salad makes for a really nice, light meal paired with some soup or a vegetable dish, or by itself.  Last night I ate a plate of this salad with some roasted acorn squash I had left over with some honey drizzled over the top.  Yum!  Healthy dinner after a nice run. 

Ingredients

1 cup quinoa

2 cups water

1/2 tsp fine sea salt

2 cups cooked black beans, or 1 can, drained and rinsed

3-4 green onions, thinly sliced

1/2 cup cilantro

1/2 red bell pepper, chopped

1 medium carrot, grated with a box grater or finely chopped

2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, finely chopped

1 tsp adobo sauce

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup fresh lime juice

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1 tsp ground cumin

1/4 tsp fine sea salt

Instructions

First, rinse and drain the quinoa.  Bring the water and salt to a boil.  Add the quinoa, lower the heat to medium or medium low.  Cover and cook for approximately 20 minutes, or until all the water is absorbed.  Remove the pan from the heat, and allow the quinoa to cool completely before proceeding with the remainder of the recipe.  If you use hot quinoa to make the salad, the texture becomes mushy. 

Place the quinoa in a large bowl suitable for mixing.  Add the black beans, green onions, carrot, red bell pepper, and cilantro.

Next, make the dressing.  Combine the chipotle peppers, adobo sauce, olive oil, lime juice, garlic, cumin, and salt in a small bowl.  Whisk together until everything is well combined.  Add to the quinoa mixture and stir to mix until the dressing is well distributed.  Serve cold or at room temperature.  Use the salad within a week of making it.

The CSA Challenge Part III: Peppers

Here are a few recipes to show some examples of how I’ve used the peppers I got in my CSA box a few weeks ago (yes, I still have some of the veggies, but they’re almost gone!).  Besides these recipes, I’ve also used the serrano and Anaheim peppers for the following:

• 1 chopped Anaheim pepper to mix with my cornbread batter
• 2 serranos for a batch of refried pinto beans
• 1 chopped Anaheim pepper for a raw collards salad

Roasted Pepper Hummus

Ingredients

1 Anaheim pepper

1 bell pepper or other mild pepper (mine was an Italian Ringo pepper, an oblong yellow sweet pepper)

2 T olive oil, plus more for brushing the peppers

2 cups cooked chickpeas (1 can, drained and rinsed is good too)

Large handful cilantro (no need to chop, the food processor will take care of that)

2 whole peeled garlic cloves

2 T tahini

1/2 tsp sea salt, plus more to taste if necessary

Instructions

Heat oven to 400.  Brush peppers with olive oil, and place on cookie sheet.

Bake for about 20 minutes, until the peppers are cooked and brown, like this:

Let peppers cool completely before using in the hummus.  Remove stems and seeds.  Combine all ingredients in the food processor, and whirl until everything is well combined, scraping the sides once or twice if needed.  Serve on bread, on sandwiches, or as a dip for crudite.

Salsa Verde

This green salsa was inspired by Kippy Nigh’s recipe in her cookbook A Taste of Mexico.  The salsa was fantastic with some molletes (toasted bread slathered with refried beans, salsa, and cashew/tofu cream) and the seitan tacos I made a few weeks ago.  Though I used the serrano peppers I got in my CSA share for this, I also found some tomatillos at my local farmers market, so this was a mostly local salsa! 

Ingredients

3-4 tomatillos, peeled

2 serrano or 1 jalapeno pepper

1 clove garlic

1/2 white or yellow onion, chopped

1/2 tsp sea salt

About 1.5 cups water

Handful of cilantro

Preparation

Place all ingredients except the cilantro in a small saucepan.  Bring to a boil.  Turn down to medium high heat and cook for about 8-10 minutes, or until the tomatillos are cooked (they’ll be tender instead of firm as when they are fresh).  Once done, place the pan contents in a food processor along with the cilantro, and whirl until you have salsa.  Add water if you want a thinner consistency.

Baking with Vegetables: Pumpkin Muffins and Sweet Potato Brownies

My original thought for making a vegetable-added brownie was to make a beet brownie.  I eventually will, but I had a sweet potato to use.
Sweet potatoes in particular add sweetness to the brownies such that less sugar is necessary.  I also had to make pumpkin muffins because I had yet to make them this fall, though they are one of the things I most look forward to making in the fall and winter.  The pumpkin muffins are inspired by the Yammy Muffins recipe from the Sustainable Food Center’s The Happy Kitchen cookbook, which I’m currently doing some recipe testing for.  I changed up that recipe quite a bit, reducing the amount of sugar, increasing the pumpkin, eliminating the oil, and using pumpkin in place of sweet potato.  Overall, using vegetables in baking adds moisture so that less oil and eggs are necessary, and in the case of beets and sweet potatoes, adds sweetness so that you don’t need to add so much sugar.  Of course, there’s also the added nutrition factor.

Pumpkin Muffins

Ingredients

1 3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour or white whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground cinammon

1/2 cup barley malt syrup

1/2 cup almond milk (or any milk will do)

1 15-oz. can pumpkin

2 T ground flax mixed with 6 T water, or 2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup grain-sweetened chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400.  Line a 12-cup muffin pan with papers, or dab some vegetable oil or butter in the cups to keep the muffins from sticking.

In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients.  In another smaller bowl combine the pumpkin, flax mixture or eggs, vanilla, barley malt, and almond milk.  Then, mix the dry and wet ingredients together, until just combined.  Fold in the chocolate chips.  Evenly distribute muffin batter in the muffin pan.  Bake for 30 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean.

Sweet Potato Brownies

Ingredients

4 T (1/2 stick) butter or non-hydrogenated margarine (I think coconut oil would be good here too, though I haven’t tried it yet.)

1  4-ounce bar of 100% cacao chocolate (I used Ghiradelli brand)

1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup turbinado sugar

About 1 cup mashed sweet potato (about 1 large sweet potato)

1 T ground flax mixed with 3 T water, or 1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

Peel the sweet potato, cut into chunks, and boil until tender.  (Another alternative is to cut a few slits in the potato and microwave until it’s cooked, usually about 10 minutes.)  Mash in a medium bowl.

Heat the oven to 375 degrees.  Melt the butter with the chocolate bar in a medium saucepan or skillet over medium low heat until completely melted.  Stir during the process to facilitate the combining of the butter and chocolate.

Mix dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, and salt) together in a small bowl.  Mix the flax mixture or egg with the sweet potato, vanilla, and sugar.  Add the chocolate mixture, then add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.  Place in a square 8×8 pan, or a loaf pan for thicker brownies (that’s what I did).  Bake for about 25 minutes.  The brownies will be very fudgy, not cakey.

The CSA Challenge, Part II: Eggplant

I used to really dislike eggplant, despite my wish to really like it.  Part of my dislike had to do with only being exposed to store-bought eggplant, which is often large and bitter (the larger your eggplant, the more bitter it will be.)  Also, enjoying eggplant really depends on how you prepare it.  My conclusion after trying various ways of preparing eggplant is that it’s got to be roasted/baked into oblivion.  My favorite eggplant dishes include Imam bayildi, a typical Turkish dish of very soft roasted eggplant stuffed with vegetables and doused in olive oil, baba ganoush, eggplant parmesan, and ratatouille.  All of these involve oven roasting your eggplant until very soft.  With eggplant I got in my CSA box, I made two dishes:  baba ganoush and a vegan eggplant parmesan.  The baba ganoush recipe is my own, the eggplant parmesan is adapted from a recipe on the Fat Free Vegan website (link provided).  I changed up some of the ingredients and rewrote the instructions according to how I actually made the dish. I used the lighter colored eggplant for the baba ganoush, and the darker for the eggplant parmesan, though these are certainly interchangeable.

Recipe #1:  Baba Ganoush

Aside from eating spoonfuls of this magical, addictive dip, my favorite way to eat this is on toasted whole grain bread with plenty of seeds. 

Ingredients

1 large eggplant or 2 medium (I used one medium and 2 small)

Olive oil for brushing the eggplant, plus 3 T as an ingredient for the dip

2 cloves garlic, peeled

Juice of one lemon

2 T tahini

Handful (about 1/3 cup) fresh parsley

1/2 tsp sea salt, plus more to taste

Method

First, cook the eggplant.  Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.  While the oven heats, place the eggplants on a cookie sheet or glass baking dish.  Split the eggplants down the middle, both vertically and horizontally.  Brush the eggplant with olive oil, on all sides.  When the oven is heated, bake the eggplant for about 30 minutes, until very soft.

Next, scrape the flesh out of the skins using a spoon.  I ended up with about one cup of flesh.

Now, you are ready to make the final product.  Place the eggplant and the remaining ingredients in a food processor.  Process until smooth.  Taste, and add additional salt if necessary.  Makes about 1 1/2 cups of baba ganoush.

Recipe #2:  Vegan Eggplant Parmesan

Note: This recipe says to salt the eggplant.  I skipped this step because my eggplants were smaller and I knew they were unlikely to be bitter.  If you use a large eggplant, particularly store-bought eggplant, slice the eggplant, salt it, put it in a colander and place over a larger bowl or in the sink.  The salt extracts the eggplant’s liquid, and thereby helps eliminate the bitterness many eggplants have.

Ingredients

1 large eggplant, or 2 medium

1 1/2 cups whole wheat bread crumbs

Olive oil for brushing the eggplant before broiling

Tomato sauce

1 medium onion, chopped

1 T olive oil

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 14-oz. can diced tomatoes with basil (or plain, adding 1 tsp dried basil to the sauce)

1/2 cup vegetable broth (I dissolved one cube of Rapunzel vegetable bouillon in 1 cup water in a small sauce pan over medium heat)

2 T tomato paste

Salt and pepper to taste

“Cheese” sauce

1/2 cup silken tofu (I used the boxed variety)

1/2 cup almond milk, or other non-dairy milk

1/2 cup vegetable broth

2 T cashews

1 tsp onion powder

3 T nutritional yeast (I upped this amount because I wanted a cheesier flavor)

1/2 tsp sea salt

2 or 3 twists of freshly ground black pepper

2 tsp corn starch

Method

Turn on your oven’s broiler.  Remove the eggplant stems and slice into 1/4-1/2 slices.  Place on a cookie sheet, and brush with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt.  Place the eggplant under the broiler for about 3 or 4 minutes, until it starts to brown, as shown below.  Remove from the oven.

Next, prepare the tomato sauce.  Heat 1 T olive oil in a large sauce pan over medium heat.  When heated, add the onion and saute for about 5 minutes.  Add the garlic, sauteing for another minute or two.  Add the remaining sauce ingredients, stir until combined, and cook over medium low heat for 15-20 minutes.

While the sauce is cooking, prepare the cheese sauce.  Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor, and process until completely smooth.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.  While the oven  heats, assemble the dish.  Use a medium-sized glass baking dish (mine was 8×11 inches).  Place half the eggplant slices in the bottom of the pan.  Top with half the bread crumbs, evenly coating the eggplant layer.  Next, spread half the tomato sauce over the eggplant and bread crumbs.  Pour over half the cheese sauce.

Repeat these layer once more, reserving some of the bread crumbs to top the eggplant parmesan.  Bake uncovered for about 25-30 minutes, until the top is a bit browned.  Allow to cool about 10 minutes and serve.

Raspberry Chocolate Spelt Scones

This post is dedicated to my good friend Amy.  These scones are my attempt to recreate a wonderful raspberry chocolate spelt scone we used to buy every Saturday at the farmers market.  The scones, along with strong cups of Katz coffee, was our Saturday morning breakfast.  After Amy moved away about three years ago, the bakery that made these great scones stopped coming to the market.  I’ve been thinking about those scones a lot lately, as I’ve been waxing nostalgic.  While the scones I made are not a precise replica, I have to say they come pretty darn close.  Breakfast this week of strong coffee paired with these scones will be good for my soul.

This recipe is adapted from Erin McKenna’s Raspberry Scones.  I added the chocolate, changed the sweetener, used coconut oil instead of canola, and added more liquid.  I also wrote the instructions in my own words.  I found the recipe on several different recipe sites and blogs, but here is one link:

http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/raspberry-scones

Ingredients

2 cups whole spelt flour

1 T baking powder

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/3 cup virgin coconut oil

1/3 cup barley malt syrup

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 -3/4 cup hot water (I increased this amount from the recipe–the dough was just too dry with the 1/4 cup the recipe called for)

2/3 cup grain-sweetened chocolate chips

1 cup frozen or fresh raspberries, thawed and drained if frozen (you can thaw them in the microwave, or if you think about it ahead of time you can thaw them in the refrigerator)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.  In a separate bowl, mix the oil, barley malt syrup, and vanilla together.  Add to the spelt flour mixture.  The mixture will be dry.  Add the water, and mix completely.  Fold in the raspberries and chocolate chips, being careful not to overmix.  Mix only until the raspberries and chocolate chips are evenly distributed throughout the batter.

Spoon out the batter onto the parchment paper-lined cookie sheet using about 1/3 cup of batter per scone.  Place about 1-1 1/2 inches apart.  All the scones should fit on one sheet.

Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown.   Allow to cool about 15 minutes before serving.