Breakfast Quinoa

I've wanted to try making quinoa for breakfast for awhile. I've been eating cereal in the morning for almost 30 years... and I'm getting a little tired of it. I've also wanted to try healthier breakfasts, as sugary cereals are pretty much the worst breakfast food. I'm not into smoothies (too cold and not enough food-like substance), oatmeal's a little heavy and I can't keep eating homemade egg mcmuffins on a daily basis - so here's my attempt at Martha Stewart's Breakfast Quinoa. Why Martha Stewart? Because it was the easiest of all the recipes I googled. That's how I roll.

I like quinoa and it's supposedly super good for you, etc etc but I was curious if it would taste good sweet instead of savoury, since it's got quite a strong, nutty taste to it. First, I brought 2 cups milk to a (careful) boil. Add in 1 cup quinoa (rinsed for 3 minutes first in a mesh strainer) and turn the element to low. Let it simmer until 3/4 of the milk is gone, about 15 minutes.

It actually took me more like 20+ minutes, either I had it too low or I thought it looked too milky. I then added about 2 Tbsp sugar and 1 tsp of cinnamon, and continued cooking it for another 8 minutes until all the milk was absorbed. Do keep an eye on it during this time - the bottom of mine got a little burned. I didn't have blueberries, as the recipe calls for, so I threw in dried cranberries.

And that's about it! To serve, the recipe suggests adding extra toppings - more fruit, spices, and enough milk to make it porridge-y. It was sweet and milky, and any fruit (fresh or dried) would have been fine. I found it a little too milky - I don't think I would add extra next time... something about hot milk didn't appeal to me. I wanted something more like oatmeal - thick and filling. It would be easy enough to make in advance and just reheat bowls in the microwave in the morning, which I appreciate, but it wasn't my favourite. I will give it another try, though.

Sweet Potato and Red Curry Soup with Rice and Kale

I might as well just call this blog Whisk, Stir, and Blend: A Blog About Making Food from Isa Does It: Amazingly Easy, Wildly Delicious Vegan Recipes for Every Day of the Week. I'm not ashamed - she's been keeping me well fed for the last few weeks. Here's a hearty soup with some Thai flavours for the cold, winter days: Sweet Potato and Red Curry Soup with Rice and Kale (p. 34).

Get your big soup pot ready. Heat some olive oil, and sauté 1 diced onion for about 5 minutes. Add three minced garlic cloves and 1 Tbsp mined fresh ginger, cook for about 1 minute. Add 3/4 cup basmati rice, 6 cups vegetable broth (I used salt-free chicken stock because the store was sold out of veggie stock! Seriously!) and salt and pepper. Cover and bring to a boil.

While it's coming up to a boil, get the veggies ready: clean and stem one bunch of kale (the recipe calls for purple kale - I don't think I've ever seen it so regular it is) and peel and dice two medium sweet potatoes into 1/2" chunks. Once the stock is boiling, turn it down to a simmer and stir in 2 Tbsp red curry paste (add more if you like it spicy). Throw in the kale and sweet potato. Cover and simmer for about 15 minutes, until the potatoes are cooked.

Add 1 can coconut milk (YUM), 3 Tbsp fresh lime juice and 1 Tbsp agave nectar (use honey if you don't have any). Serve with lots of cilantro and sriracha and enjoy! It's a lovely recipe when you're in the mood for a warming bowl of soup. It doesn't have a protein so you could add one if you want a more complete meal (like tofu, beans, chicken or whatever) but it doesn't really need it - it has a lot of different textures going on. It's creamy and flavourful and not too spicy. A nice way to use red curry paste other than making straight-up curry.

Rosemary-Chocolate Chip Cookies

I had only made it through the first few chapters of Isa Does It: Amazingly Easy, Wildly Delicious Vegan Recipes for Every Day of the Week, soups and salads, and had flipped to the back for some reason - only to discover there were dessert recipes too! Now Isa has co-authored cookbooks on vegan cupcakes, pies and cookies so it's not really a surprise. I was excited to try the first one listed - Rosemary-Chocolate Chip Cookies (p. 272). I had never made vegan cookies before, because usually margarine doesn't hold up to butter in cookie recipes. But my local grocery store just happened to have currently trendy coconut oil on sale and this is what she uses. Also - rosemary? What?

Seems there are two kinds of coconut oil. There's virgin, which is what I have - it smells quite strongly of coconut and is very soft and shiny. There's also refined, which I hear has less of a coconut smell. Oh well, I like coconut so it's all good. In a large bowl, using a fork, mix 1/2 cup coconut oil (room temp) with 2 Tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped finely. Rosemary in sweet cookies? Yes. Add in 1/3 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup white sugar and mix for 1 minute. Add 1/4 cup milk (soy, almond, cow, whatever you have... I had cow) and 2 Tbsp ground flax seed (commonly used as an egg replacer in vegan baking) and mix again for about 30 seconds.

Mix in 2 tsp vanilla. Add in 1/4 or 1/2 tsp salt (my husband preferred it saltier, I preferred a little less), 1/2 tsp baking soda, and 2/3 cup flour. Mix well with the fork, then add another 2/3 cup flour. Mix and when it's almost combined, throw in 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips. And yes, without raw eggs you can definitely sneak a spoonful or two. Spoon onto trays covered with parchment paper and bake @350 for about 11 minutes. It made about 18 cookies for me.

Let them cool on trays and try not to stuff them all in your face at once. These were lovely - the coconut oil did a fine job of making a soft, chewy cookie. With a faint taste of coconut, lots of sweetness and some citrusy pine flavour from the rosemary, these were quite unique and quite the crowd pleasers. Fabulous warm but still good the next day. I've already made them twice and will definitely make them again soon.

Lasagna Soup

In my last post, I promised a recipe that tasted like Chef Boyardee. Here it is: Lasagna Soup from Food Network magazine. This is one of those meaty recipes from Food Network I usually skip because, well, they sound gross. But this one actually appealed to me - and I found the perfect Italian whole wheat pasta for it so I gave it a try.

First, cook 8 oz lasagna noodles. I found these little wavy pasta shapes that were very lasagna-like, or you could just buy actual lasagna sheets and break them into pieces. Mix with a little olive oil (to stop them sticking together) and set aside. In a large pot, heat some olive oil and cook 2 diced onions for 4-5 minutes. Add 3 garlic cloves (sadly I only had one good one, they rest had gone off), 1 tsp dried oregano and 1/2 lb Italian sausage with the casings removed - I used 3 hot sausages and it was more like 2/3 lb. Luckily removing the casings was pretty easy, because it was a little unpleasant. But it means they cook like ground meat, and you break them apart even more with a wooden spoon while it browns, 3-4 minutes.

Stir in 2 Tbsp tomato paste and let it brown a little while stirring, 2 minutes. Stir in 4 cups chicken stock (I used the full sodium kind - luxurious!), 1 cup water and 1 can crushed tomatoes. Uncover and simmer about 10 minutes so it can thicken. Then stir in the pasta, 1/2 cup fresh sliced basil, 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese, and 1/4 cup cream (I just used milk). Simmer 2 minutes and it's done! I served it as recommended, with ricotta on top.

This was quite the decadent recipe! It was quite spicy, thanks to the hot sausage, but it was salty, meaty, tomatoey, cheesy... no wonder it was fabulous. And yes, it bears an uncanny resemblance (flavour-wise anyway) to Chef Boyardee. Definitely a once-in-awhile recipe for us.