Quinoa Salad - Asian Style

Oh my, January has almost gone and we are rushing headlong into 2017.

I'm hoping for a healthier 2017, filled with amazing adventures, travel, new food combinations, weight loss (yes I am still trying), finding new things to try, taking more photographs, getting fitter!!! The list goes on. 

Fingers crossed, I will be launching my new look blog in 2017 which will have more features and lots of new recipes. So keep a look out!

My biggest hurdle for this year, apart from getting my new blog working, is to find ways to reduce calories, get high nutrition and still have enjoyable food.

What I want to reduce - apart from my waistline - is having too many 'trendy' ingredients that you use once and then hide in your pantry until you throw them out in a years time. Great food, great tastes, simple as......

It's summer here and we had a ridiculously early start to hot weather  - 41 degrees C on Christmas Day, and our Tour Down Under (cycle race) last week experienced temperatures in the 40's too. We have had hot, humid weather and more storms than ever before. 

Don't despair, I've got some great salads for you.

This week I am sharing one of my favourite salads. Low calorie, a healthy combination, high in protein and it tastes pretty damn good! 

In hot weather, this salad is fantastic, there's so little cooking.

Quinoa Salad - Asian Style

Ingredients - serves at least 6 as a side dish

1 cup Quinoa - I use red, but any colour will be fine
2 cups water
salt
1 cup  red cabbage shredded
1 cup shelled edamame
2 carrots shredded
1 zucchini shredded
1 red capsicum chopped
1/2 large continental cucumber diced
pinch salt and pepper


Sauce

1 spring onion finely sliced
1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
1/8 teaspoon chilli flakes
1/4 cup of Tamari/ soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar 
2 tablespoons of chopped coriander
2 tablespoons water - optional


Wash the Quinoa well and place into a medium saucepan with 2 cups of water and a pinch of salt. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer until all water has evaporated. This usually takes 10 - 15 minutes. Cool slightly.

While Quinoa is cooking prepared salad vegetables. I use a mandolin to cut cabbage, zucchini and carrot. Place in a bowl and mix well. Add chopped red capsicum and edamame beans and mix well. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Make the sauce by mixing all the ingredients together in a small bowl. Now if the sauce looks a little thick (depends if you go overboard with the coriander), then add 1 - 2 tablespoons water and mix well.

Once the Quinoa has cooled slightly, mix into the salad vegetables. Add the sauce and mix well. Sprinkle with a few chopped coriander leaves and slices of spring onion.

Serving suggestions


This salad can be used on its own or as a side dish. 

You could add some cooked tofu, omelet, or nuts. You can also substitute the Quinoa for brown rice or other grains you prefer.

Carrots - Two Ways

Mrs Isabella Beeton is probably the best selling cookery writer of the Victorian era despite her short life, 1836 - 1865 and with only a few years of practical experience. Sounds a bit like "Master Chef" today contestants today.

'Mrs Beetons Book of Household Management' is still an outstanding book and worth a read. Imagine, it was first published in 1861 and initially sold 60,000 copies.  

The standards of food in the 1850s were so scandalously low. Mrs Beeton instructs her reader to cut off 'tainted' bits of meat, throw away 'worm-eaten' beans and pick the 'dirt' off currants. Milk was adulterated with water as a matter of course, flour was bulked out by alum, coffee came with acorns, and, most alarming of all, sweets were laced with arsenic. Do I hear you say that  we haven't come a long way with our food processing?

One particular vegetable, the humble carrot has definitely come a long way since Mrs Beeton suggested boiling a pot of carrots for 1 to 1.5 hours, mashing them and adding cayenne pepper. Sounds interesting but I can't think that there would be much left to mash after that long.

Such versatile vegetables; carrots can be used for sweet and savoury dishes, roasted, boiled, steamed, grated, julienned and raw: carrots are a great source of vitamin A, and C. high in fibre, low in calories and very low in cost. And how surprised Mrs Beeton would be to see the range of carrot colours we get at the market. Amazingly, they are available all year around and add a fabulously rich golden colour to any dish.

With winter fast approaching, it's time to get soups sorted. Here are a couple of my favourites carrot soups, which are deliciously filling and very cost effective for the whole family. 

Make sure you scroll to the end to get both recipes! Enjoy@!

Carrot and Pumpkin Soup with Ginger and Chilli

Ingredients

2 tbls fresh ginger grated
1/2 tsp chilli powder
2 cloves garlic minced
1 small brown onion chopped
225 g pumpkin sliced
250 g carrots scrubbed and sliced
2 cups stock or water
2 tbls olive oil
1 tbls butter
salt and pepper 
small fresh red chilli
Plain Greek yoghurt

Pre heat oven to 18ºc fan forced. Line a baking tray with baking paper and lay the pumpkin on it. Either spray with olive oil or sprinkle with olive oil and a good serving of salt and pepper and bake in the oven for 20 - 30 minutes until soft.

Once the pumpkin has cooled, take off the outer peel and cut into chunks. 

In a large pot heat butter and olive oil. Add onion, garlic and ginger and cook for 5 minutes until onion is soft. Add carrots and chilli powder and cook for 3 minutes. Add stock or water, salt and pepper to taste and simmer covered until the carrots are cooked through. Take them off the heat and allow the carrots to cool slightly before blending.

Using whichever kitchen appliance you prefer, blend the carrots and pumpkin together, until you reach the desired consistency.

Check seasoning and chilli and add more to suit. Serve with a dollop of yoghurt, a few slices of fresh chilli and parsley if you have any readily available.

Carrot and Cashew Nut Soup

Ingredients

1 small brown onion chopped
250 g carrots scrubbed and sliced
100 g raw cashew nuts
1 large potato, peeled and chopped
2 cups stock or water
2 tbls olive oil
1 tbls butter
salt and pepper 
chopped chives
grated fresh nutmeg

In a large pan add the oil, butter and onion and cook until soft. Add the carrots and potato, salt and pepper and 2 cups of stock. Bring back to the boil, then simmer until the vegetables are nearly cooked, around 20 minutes. Add the cashew nuts and continue to cook until the nuts and carrots are nice and soft. 

Take off the heat and allow to cool a little before blitzing with a hand blender until you reach the desired consistency.

I usually serve this with some chopped chives and a grating of fresh nutmeg.

Kitchen Gadgets

My apologies for a slack posting month, but it has been a very busy time for some unknown reason. I am endeavouring to speed up posting this month because I hope to have a couple of weeks break over Christmas to play with ice cream recipes and enjoy the time with my family.

How many kitchen gadgets do you have that you simply can't live without? I find myself in love yet again with another little bit of plastic!

I am being deadly serious. Most times I get by with a cheese grater, a few sharp knives, a micro planer and an apple corer. Today, I was reading about this fantastic gadget - a Julienne Peeler and I knew I just had to have one. Ok, so I am fast becoming a kitchen gadget junkie! 

I headed down to my local kitchen shop to see if I could snaffle up one. My Kitchen is a great little shop in Main Street, Blackwood. They have the most amazing array of products that you would generally only find in a much larger store. It is a sheer delight to wander in and browse, but it isn't long before your eyes are drawn to something that you haven't seen before and you know that it is something you must have. 

My Kitchen has been in operation for close on 17 years and the current owner Karen, has been here for around 10 years. It just proves that this little shop has definitely provided the right service and products to it's local community over a long period of time.

Here is a peek into the world of My Kitchen.

So now back to my Julienne Peeler.

So why is this gadget so amazing. Well check these pictures out. I do own a Mandolin and it slices thing really finely and good sized julienne cuts for stir fries but this product is truly wonderful and completely different.

In celebration here is a quick salad, using my new peeler. And if this doesn't make you want to run to your handy kitchen supplier and buy one, then nothing will.

So humour me and  give it a try it!

Zucchini  and Cucumber Salad with *Herb Dressing

You will need:

2 - 3 zucchini

1 long continental cucumber

basil, chives, parsley - 2 tbls of each finely chopped

1 tbls capers finely chopped

3 tbls pine nuts, roasted in a dry pan

1/2 cup of plain yogurt
1 carrot

1 clove garlic minced

2 tbls lemon juice  

salt and pepper

2 tbls olive oil

1 tbls white wine vinegar

1/4 cup shaved parmesan cheese 

Using your Julienne Peeler, process the continental cucumber , zucchini and carrot. Place in a colander and add a pinch salt. Leave to drain for 30 minutes. Wash off the salt and squeeze dry the vegetables.  Place these in a bowl with the chopped capers, pine nuts and shaved parmesan.

Using a stick blender, blend herbs, garlic, yoghurt, lemon juice, vinegar, oil.

There should be a nice bite to this dressing. Adjust seasoning to suit with lemon and salt and pepper.

*This dressing was inspired by my friend Terri. When we worked together, one of the dressings Terri loved to make was a green, herb mayonnaise. Well Terri, I have taken out the mayonnaise and replaced it with yoghurt. Let me know what you think.