Quinoa Salad with Tomato, Roasted Red Pepper, Pine Nuts and Cherries

To download a cookbook style copy of the recipe for Quinoa Salad with Tomato, Roasted Red Pepper, Pine Nuts and Cherries, click HERE.

A warm welcome to new subscriber Ruby. Great to see you here!

Culinary inspiration, of course, can come from many places. The world is ready to tell us about many wonderful foods and ingredients; our job is to listen for them.

Recently, at my cousin’s wedding reception, I got my first taste of quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah). In use for literally thousands of years – it was an important part of the diets of the Incas of ancient Peru – quinoa is a delicious, easy-to-prepare superfood that is finding new popularity due to its high protein, iron, and fiber contents.

If you’re not familiar with quinoa, at first look you might confuse it with couscous. But the taste and mouthfeel of this nutritional powerhouse are totally different.

Quinoa can be used in many ways. This recipe features it as a warm side dish, and has the added benefit of including cherries, the anti-oxidant and melatonin rich superfruit.

A couple of Cook’s Notes before we begin:

• It is important to rinse the quinoa thoroughly as described above before cooking. Quinoa has a naturally occurring coating called saponins. If not rinsed off, saponins can cause the quinoa to taste bitter.

• Although this recipe uses chicken broth to cook the quinoa, to make this a vegetarian dish just use vegetable broth instead.

This recipe makes about 1 quart of quinoa salad.

Here’s what you’ll need:

1 cup grape tomatoes; olive oil; 2 Tbsp white wine vinegar; 1/2 Tbsp dried oregano;1 red bell pepper; 1 cup uncooked quinoa; ½ cup dried cherries; 2 Tbsp fine-diced onion; 4 garlic cloves, minced; 2 cups fat free, reduced sodium chicken broth; ½ tsp kosher salt; ¼ cup pine nuts; 2 Tbsp dried parsley; pinch fresh ground black pepper; and 2 Tbsp grated parmesan.

To prepare the tomatoes:

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Quarter the grape tomatoes lengthwise.

Toss the tomatoes with a small amount of olive oil, about ½ tsp. Place on a baking sheet, and bake for 10-12 minutes.

 

Combine the vinegar, 2 Tbsp olive oil, and the oregano in a bowl.

Add the roasted tomato quarters and let marinate while you prepare the rest of the recipe.

To prepare the roasted red pepper:

Roast the red pepper on the stove top until the skin is blackened.

Wrap the blackened pepper in foil and set aside to cool. The pepper will continue to steam in the foil for a while.

Continue with the rest of the recipe. When the pepper has cooled, scrape off and discard the blackened skin, and dice the pepper flesh.

To prepare the quinoa for cooking:

Place the quinoa in a bowl and add enough water to cover. Let the quinoa soak for five minutes, then rinse well under the faucet. Drain well.

To rehydrate the cherries:

Combine the cherries and 1 cup of water in a large saucepan over medium heat.

When the liquid has just begun to boil, remove the saucepan from the heat. Transfer the cherries and liquid to a bowl and set aside for now till needed. (We'll drain the cherries later on before adding them to the quinoa.)

To cook the quinoa:

Warm ½ Tbsp olive oil over medium heat in a saucepan. (If you like, you can rinse and dry the saucepan you just used to rehydrate the cherries.) Add the diced onion and sauté just until tender, about 1 minute. Add minced garlic and cook until fragrant, 30 seconds to 1 minute, stirring constantly.

Add the quinoa and cook for 2 minutes, stirring often.

Add the chicken stock and salt.

Heat to a boil, reduce the heat to simmer, then cover and simmer until the liquid is absorbed and quinoa is tender. (This should take about 15 minutes, but keep an eye on it.)

While quinoa is cooking, toast the pine nuts on a baking sheet in the oven, or in a nonstick skillet over medium heat.

When the quinoa has finished cooking, stir in the tomatoes (including marinating liquid), red pepper, cherries (drained), pine nuts, parsley, and black pepper.

To serve:

Sprinkle with parmesan, and drizzle with a little olive oil to serve. Serve warm or hot.

To download a cookbook style copy of the recipe for Quinoa Salad with Tomato, Roasted Red Pepper, Pine Nuts and Cherries, click HERE.

Never let it be said the ancient Incas didn’t know how to eat great tasting, healthy food!

Please visit again next week for another home-cook friendly recipe! Till then, stay well, keep it about the food, and always remember to kiss the cook. ;-)

Potato-Carrot Kugel

To download a cookbook style copy of the recipe for Potato-Carrot Kugel, click HERE.

A great big welcome to new subscriber Carmen!

Of the many great gifts given to the world by the cuisine of Eastern Europe, one of the most popular (and certainly one of the easiest) is the kugel, a baked casserole of either noodles or potatoes that is usually served as a hearty side dish. (Sometimes, kugels are baked in muffin tins instead of in a baking dish in order to make individual servings.) A well-made kugel is crisp on the outside, and soft and moist (but not dense) on the inside.

This week we’re making a Potato-Carrot Kugel. The addition of the grated carrots, and some grated apple, lend just enough sweetness to make this delightful. If you’ve had a good potato kugel before, I believe this will compare favorably. If you haven’t, I believe you’ll be glad you did.

This recipe makes 4-6 side dish servings.

Here are the ingredients you’ll need:

1/2 medium onion (to make ½ cup diced); 1 or 2 garlic cloves; 4 Tbsp flavor-neutral cooking oil, divided; 1 pound potatoes; 1/3 lb carrots; 1 sweet apple; 1 tsp salt; pinch fresh ground black pepper; pinch dried thyme; pinch dried dill; ½ cup AP flour; ½ tsp baking powder; 2 egg-substitute eggs; and cooking spray.

To make the kugel:

Begin preheating oven to 350 degrees.

Dice ½ a medium onion (1/2 cup) and mince the garlic.

Heat 1 Tbsp of the oil in a non-stick pan. Sauté the garlic until fragrant, 30 seconds to one minute, then add the diced onion and cook until lightly caramelized.

While the onions and garlic are cooking, peel and grate the potatoes (you should get about 2 cups), and place in a strainer over a bowl. Press gently to drain.

Peel and grate the carrots (you should get about 1 cup) and the apple.

Put the potatoes, carrots, apple, onion, salt, pepper, thyme, dill, flour, baking powder and the remaining oil in a mixing bowl, and mix till combined. Stir in the egg substitute eggs.

Spread the mixture in an 8”x 8” baking dish that has been sprayed with the cooking spray.

Bake for until the top is browned and a toothpick placed in middle comes out clean (about 60 minutes). When it’s done, let it rest for about 10 minutes before cutting.

Cut into squares, and serve hot as a side dish. (In the photo at the top, the kugel is served with broccoli and my wife’s meat loaf.)

To download a cookbook style copy of the recipe for Potato-Carrot Kugel, click HERE.

And that, my friends, is how you make an easy, delicious potato-carrot kugel!

Visit again next week for another kitchen-tested recipe! Till then, stay well, keep it about the food, and always remember to kiss the cook. ;-)

Tomato-Basil Risotto with Roasted Red Pepper

To download a copy of the recipe for Tomato-Basil Risotto with Roasted Red Pepper, click HERE.

I recently had the good fortune of attending a gathering of friends who love to cook. Some are professionals, some devoted home cooks; all contributed their talents (and, being human, no doubt a bit of competitive spirit too) to a spread of good food more expansive than any banquet I could imagine. One of the many great dishes there was a delicious shrimp risotto that reminded me of two things: that I really love risotto, and that it has been far too long since I’ve made it. Today’s recipe corrects that.

Risotto, for anyone not familiar, is a rich and highly addictive rice dish with a unique, al dente yet creamy texture. That texture, without which risotto is just not risotto, comes from the fact that it is made from any of several special short-grain rices that readily absorb liquid and release starch, instead of the long-grain rice used in most other rice dishes. The other essential part is the constant stirring (and occasional agitation of the pan itself) necessary for the rice to release its starch. Once started, the preparation of risotto is not usually something you can walk away from to let cook on its own. (For that reason, good mise en place – having everything measured, chopped, etc., before you start – is especially important here.) If you give the preparation the attention it deserves, you – and your family or guests - will be amply rewarded.

Within the basic risotto structure - rice, onion, garlic, oil or butter, wine and parmesan – many treatments are possible, This recipe is for Tomato-Basil Risotto with Roasted Red Pepper. It’s shown in the photo above topped with cornmeal-crusted codfish nuggets and surrounded by marinated grilled zucchini and yellow squash. (The fish is based on a recipe posted here previously; if you’d like a copy of that recipe, just let me know and I’ll be happy to send it. The grilled, marinated vegetables are from a recipe published by Bobby Flay in his “Grilling for Life” cookbook. It generally consists of grilling the vegetables, then marinating them.)

Hope you enjoy this take on an Italian classic! This recipe makes four servings.

Begin by warming 4 cups of vegetable broth in a saucepan over low heat.

While the broth is warming, roast a red bell pepper on the stove burner. After the entire skin is blackened, wrap the pepper in foil and set aside to steam in its own moisture. When it has cooled enough to handle, cut the roasted pepper into small pieces and set aside.

At this point, you’ll want to check your e-mails, go to the rest room, or do anything else you might otherwise be tempted to do while the risotto is cooking. The Risotto Show is about to start, and it’s performed with no intermissions!

Put 2 Tbsp of olive oil in a sauté pan and sauté the one small onion and 4 garlic cloves, all finely chopped, over medium heat. (I used a red onion just because it was what I had on hand, but any preferred kind of onion will work.)

When they are cooked through, add one cup of Arborio rice (not regular long-grain rice!) and cook for 2 – 3 minutes, stirring constantly to coat the rice lightly in the oil.

Add ¾ cup of dry white wine (Chardonnay or similar) to the sauté pan and cook until the liquid is absorbed, stirring constantly.

Increase the heat to medium-high. Add ¼ cup of chopped, fresh basil and 1 Tbsp of fresh thyme.

Immediately after, add the broth, ½ cup at a time, stirring occasionally and waiting till the liquid is absorbed before adding more.

When all the broth is absorbed, add a 14.5 ounce can of diced tomatoes (very well drained but not rinsed) and the roasted red pepper. Cook long enough to heat through.

Add ½ cup of fresh grated parmesan.

Stir until combined, and add salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately.

To download a copy of the recipe for Tomato-Basil Risotto with Roasted Red Pepper, click HERE.

Enjoy! And please come back next week for another delicious, family-friendly recipe. Till then, stay well, keep it about the food, and always remember to kiss the cook. ;-)