Quinoa Potato Cakes

I  was served these simple potato pancakes at Mount Madonna, a retreat center where I attend a biannual yoga retreat. The food is always simple and usually tasty (sorry, I can be a bit of a snob). These pancakes were so delicious and satisfying, I could hardly believe they had only two main ingredients.

I just made a large batch and froze them just the other day, some we had for dinner, some will come with us on our big road trip this week and the rest will await our return as a simple addition to a future dinner.

You can get as fancy or a simple as you like with these cakes. 

Quinoa Potato Cakes

Ingredients

2 cups cooked mashed potatoes

2 cups cooked quinoa

olive oil

salt & pepper to taste

 optional:  1 teaspoon cumin powder or some sauteed leaks or ...whatever strikes your fancy.

1) Preheat the oven to 350 F. Make your favorite mashed potatoes and allow to cool enough to handle or use leftovers from the night before.

2) Same with the quinoa, we often use it in place of rice with a stir fry, in fact I cook it in the rice cookers.

3) Mix equal part in a bowl, add salt, pepper, cumin etc... to taste.

4) Form into patties.

5) Place on a well oiled baking sheet or into a cast iron skillet. I use the spray olive oil, you can brush them with olive oil or melted butter.

6) Bake for 15 minutes then carefully flip them and brush or spray with more olive oil. Bake for another 15 minutes.

7) They should be nicely browned. If you use a skillet, they will take less time, cook on medium heat, flipping them after 5 minutes. Cook for another 5-10 minutes.

8) Serve with as a side dish with  steamed greens, or a big salad, with a pork chop or sausages. They are great by themselves or try any of your favorite condiments, we like them with my tomato chutney.

They are great the next day heated up for breakfast or lunch !!

Quinoa salad, easy picnic fare.

The first time I had this salad was at a picnic with some friends at a goat farm. After touring the farm, we tasted lots of goat cheese, the goat feta was used in this salad.

Quinoa has a slightly nutty flavor and crunchy texture much like cracked bulgar wheat often used in tabouli, in fact this recipe reminds me of the quinoa tabouli salad I posted about last summer.

This salad takes advantage of fresh summer vegetables like cucumber, tomatoes and corn, the walnuts give it an added dimension. It is a very forgiving recipe, feel free to change the vegetable or add more or less depending upon what you have on hand.
It has become a staple in our fridge, perfect for a quick lunch.

Quinoa Salad

Ingredients

2 cups cooked quinoa

1 cup fresh corn or garbanzo beans

1 cup chopped cucumber skinned and seeded 

1 cup chopped tomatoes or cherry tomatoes halved 

3/4 cup toasted walnuts

1/2 cup crumbled feta

1/3 cup chopped pitted Kalamata Olives

1/3 cup chopped cilantro (more or less to taste)

Dressing

3 tablespoon walnut oil

3 tablespoon lemon juice

1 t. dried oregano leave

1/2 t. ground cumin

1/2 t. salt

1/2 t. ground pepper

1) Start with the cooked quinoa in a large bowl.

2) Toast the walnuts.

3) Chop the tomatoes, olives, cilantro...

4) Peel, chop and seed the cucumber. As you can see I didn't try to get out all the seeds.

5) Remove the corn from the cob.

6) Chop or crumble the feta cheese.

7) Toss all those ingredient together in the bowl and mix gently.

8) In a small bowl mix together the walnut oil, lemon juice, herbs, salt and pepper.

9) Mix into the salad and serve immediately or allow to chill. 

    This salad can last a week in the fridge.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner....Vegans !!

Tell many a home cook that your are bringing vegans to dinner and they will run screaming from the kitchen. Personally I love a good challenge in the kitchen, I don't flinch at vegan or gluten-free or any other specific dietary choices, bring them on !!

Last weekend we had my friend and her husband over for dinner, the food was to be vegan and lots of it as they are both very physically active.

For those of you unclear on the concept, vegans choose a diet that is all plant based, no flesh, dairy or eggs. Some do it for health reasons, others as part of their belief system.

These days there are cookbooks and restaurants abound that cater to vegans, at least on both coasts ;-)

While I am an avid omnivore it was easy for me to look back through this blog to find tasty recipes to use for this feast.

Here is my menu.

Drinks: Grapefruit Lemonade, these days I use whatever citrus I have on hand.
             Muddle Mint Lime Soda, I used my lime simple syrup, a few sprigs of mashed spear mint and sparkling water

First Course: Fresh Spring Rolls to which I added a baked tofu purchased at the store.
                     Chickpea Soup, since I was doing a curried roasted veggie dish as part of the main course I switched it up a bit using my Moroccan spice mix and in place of the tomatoes, I used some of my roasted bell peppers from the freezer.

Half the fun of this kind of meal are the condiments or "food toys" as I like to call them. From left to right: two kinds of fruit chutney, sliced lemon and limes, fresh spearmint sprigs, peanut sauce and a soy citrus ginger sauce ( I need to document that one next time I make it, so I can post it;-). We used them both for the first course and the main course.

Main Course: Massage Kale Salad with oranges and finely chopped fennel bulb.
                      Quinoa and Millet, which I toasted first. I used 1 cup of quinoa ( a mix of red and yellow) and 1/2 cup millet. Cook in three cups of water in your rice cooker.

                   

Roasted Curried Vegetables.

I used butternut squash, carrots and three kinds of potatoes(Trader Joe's sells them in a mesh bag together).

I cut them into rather large similar size chunks, toss them with a tablespoon of olive oil and a couple tablespoons of freshly made curry spice. The fresh curry spice is the secret to this recipe, I use the same curry spice in a baked chicken dish I have been making lately.

Place the vegetables in a foil covered and oiled baking dish, cover with more foil and bake at 350 F for 1-2 hours, checking after one hour for doneness, you want them to be very soft.

Here's what the plate looked like when Jim went back for seconds, I forgot to get a photo the first time.

Dessert !! I made the chocolate vegan cupcakes with the chocolate ganache, added a strawberry buttercream frosting to make them fancy and some fresh strawberries. They were the perfect ending to to the meal along with coffee and tea.

No one went to bed hungry !! And there was plenty of protein in the spring rolls( tofu), the bean soup, the peanut sauce and quinoa/millet.

 I will admit this was an over the top feast and had a lot of steps to prepare. I did as much as I could ahead of time and you can certainly simplify your menu.   The most important thing is to have fun with the challenge. While I won't give up my omnivorous ways, I do love lots of these plant based recipes and use them frequently in my daily meals.

For more wonderful vegan fare, check out my friend, Laurie's food blog.

This year in review: part two.

Here comes the second part of my favorite recipes from this year.
I am trying to balance the sweet and the savory, the veggies and the meat.

1) Whole wheat bread from the bread machine: I make this bread weekly, it is by far the best all whole wheat bread recipe I have found. It makes divine toast !!

2) Quinoa Tabouli: This salad was one of those experiments that worked. Look in the fridge, see what's there, try to make it all go together ;-)

3) Slow Roasted Country Style Pork Ribs: I made this dish twice for dinner guests, always a very big hit. They cook for four hours but are simple to make and so very tender !

4) The Best Chocolate Ice Cream: No lie, truly the creamiest, richest chocolate ice cream I have ever eaten.

5) Winter Squash Biscuits: We made small versions of these and added cheddar cheese to the recipe for appetizers at a party, what a hit !! The photo doesn't do them justice.

6) Pecan Pie Bar: Whoa, these gooey sweet bars were so good, just the right balance of filling and crust. They made great gifts as well.

So there you have it, some highlights from 2012. Which were your favorites ??

I already have some great ideas to start the new year !!

Tabouli Quinoa Salad

 I was making the stuffed flat breads for dinner last night and wanted some kind of salad to go with it. In my usual fashion I looked int the fridge to see what needed using up.
There was a lonely bowl of cooked quinoa...leftover from some meal a few days ago.
This being the summer season, I had some beautiful red tomatoes and a cucumber as well.
Inspiration hit me, how would it be to make the traditional Middle Eastern tabouli with quinoa to replace the the cracked bulgur wheat ??

It was an amazing success.

Here's the recipe.

Tabouli  Quinoa Salad

Ingredients

2-3 cups cooked quinoa
1 cup chopped fresh tomatoes
1 cup peeled and chopped cucumber
1 sprig chopped fresh mint
1/4- 1/2 cup fresh chopped parsley
1 clove minced garlic
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion.

1/4 cup vinaigrette dressing ( use whatever you have around or make your own).

1) Prepare all the vegetables.
2) Toss into cooked quinoa.
3) Mix the dressing into the salad and add salt and pepper to taste.

This is before I mixed it all together. I would have taken more photos if I had know how well this would turn out.

In my quickie version, I didn't use the garlic, onions or all that parsley but it was still so good. Bob couldn't stop eating it.

Eggplant the purple vegetable.

I love eggplant, turns out Bob did not. As with a lot of food preferences, it's all about how it is prepared.
Nowadays at the farmer's market eggplant comes in lots of shapes, sizes and even colors.
I try to eat it every week when it is in full season. It doesn't lend itself to freezing or canning, so I enjoy it while it is around. I am particularly fond of the small long eggplants, they work very well in stir-fries.

Here is a very simple way to make eggplant.

I like to pair the eggplant with bell peppers ( I decided to use just the red one). You can see that I cut the eggplant in half inch slices on the diagonal, the bell pepper in inch chunks. Feel free to a summer squash or onions or green beans or any other vegetable that seems to fit.

Here is my wok, we got it at a yard sale still in its original wooden box. I am not an expert but I enjoy what I make with it.

Start by heating about two tablespoons of olive oil at a medium high temperature. Once the oil is hot dump in your eggplant and pepper. I was lazy this time but usually I also add 3 to 4 cloves of minced garlic.

The trick is to keep tossing the veggies around with the metal wok tool.This is not a meal where you can wok away, tee hee.
Once they have started to cook a bit I add my not so secret ingredients.

I add 1 tablespoon sesame oil, 1-2 tablespoons soy sauce and 1-2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar. Eggplants are like sponges, they tend to soak up any liquid you choose to use.
 Keep tossing the veggies.

Don't be in a hurry, it can take the eggplant some time to soften to that nice chewy texture.
I also added a half a block of firm tofu, chopped into cubes.

In the meantime you will want some thing to put the veggies over. You could go the normal (boring) route of white or brown rice or you could try something different.
We love the combination of millet and quinoa.

The millet is on the left and the quinoa is on the right. You can see that they are both the same size and thus cook at the same rate. I use half millet and half quinoa, rinse them first, then cook them in my rice cooker, 2 cups of water to 1 cup of grains. Don't forget to add a bit of oil so it doesn't stick.

It looks like this when it is done.
Test a piece of eggplant to make sure it is a texture you like, then ladle it over your grains.
Feel free to toss on some more soy sauce or chili sauce.

Now Bob loves eggplant !!!