Wednesday, July 20, 2011

The Quinoa Experiment

Okay, so today's recipe is less local and farmer's market, and more it's really hot and I need to make something easy that won't take a lot of pots and pans and flames and hotness.  I also have had a box of quinoa in the pantry taunting me with how it's good for me and I haven't done anything with it yet.  So, I googled recipes with quinoa, and as always, read a bunch and made my own hybrid.  This may be the first in a series of experiements.

Curry Quinoa with Mango

quinoa (I used 1/2 cup b/c there's 2 of us - if you have a larger family/party, use more)
chicken stock - 1 cup (2 parts stock or water to 1 part quinoa - to make vegetarian, use water or veg stock)
handful mixed dried fruit (the mix I have is raisins, golden raisins, dried cherries and dried cranberries)
about a cup (I didn't measure) chopped mango (okay, it's not local, but mine was organic)
1/4 onion, diced
handful cashews (or your nut of choice, or no nuts if you're allergic)
curry powder
onion powder
garlic powder

If you're hardcore, you can mix your own curry blend - I'm not there yet.

In a medium sized pot, add quinoa, stock, onion powder, garlic powder and curry powder - I eyeball it, it's probably a tsp or so of the onion and garlic, a little more of the curry.  Cover and bring to a boil.  Reduce to simmer.  Add dried fruit.  Simmer, covered, until most of the water is absorbed (about 10 minutes).  Add onions, mango, stir and simmer another minute or two.  Add nuts.  Serve immediately, or cover and serve at room temp when ready.

For me, in this weather, this is an entree, but it could certainly be a side dish.  I think it would go very well with chicken or pork, or you could brown and season some tofu or paneer and add it in.  You could probably use frozen mango if you don't have fresh, but I'd thaw and drain it first so it doesn't make the dish watery.

Links


In my recipe explorations, I use two sites primarily:

All Recipes
Food Network

Sometimes I just google ingredients and see what I get, though.

No comments:

Post a Comment