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quinoa recipe

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Culinary Pursuits: Warm Kale Quinoa Salad

September 16, 2014

I’ve officially been a PhD student for a month now and so far, so good. Balancing a full course load with my research assistantship and taking time to just breathe has been a challenge, but I’m hanging in there. No rest for the weary! Fortunately, I’m surrounded by good people and that has made all the difference. It also helps that I have a great space to come back to after a long day. I love my apartment (especially my kitchen). It’s so nice and spacious so I feel like I have to put it to good use. One of the first dishes I made in it was this warm kale quinoa salad. It was too yummy not to share the recipe so check it out below!
Ingredients:
1/3 cup of coconut milk
1 cup of quinoa
Kale (6 cups)
4 cups of sweet potatoes
15 oz can of black beans
15 oz can of garbanzo beans
curry powder
sea salt
Olive oil spray

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Dice two medium sized sweet potatoes, spray them with olive oil and sprinkle on some sea salt.
Pop them in the oven for 35-40 minutes
Follow package instructions for cooking quinoa. I like to add sea salt and curry to the water I use to cook the quinoa so it’s more flavorful.
While quinoa is cooking, cook the beans (adding curry powder and sea salt to taste) on medium to high heat for 3-4 minutes (Don’t drain the sauce from the beans. You’ll use that for the kale).
Once the beans are done stir in the kale one cup at a time until it shrinks in volume.
Once quinoa is done add coconut milk and stir.
Add the sweet potatoes and the kale-bean mix to the quinoa and stir.
Optional: Garnish with goat cheese and sliced honey roasted almonds.

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Food

Culinary Pursuits: Coconut Quinoa Bake

March 11, 2014

As promised, I’m bringing you guys this coconut quinoa bake recipe. Shamefully, I bought this bag of quinoa from Trader Joe’s months ago and it has just been sitting in the pantry, staring at me every time I plan my meals for the week. Well this week I was determined to use it and I did! I also had to incorporate some of my fave healthy staples into the dish including oven roasted sweet potatoes, pecan smoked, apple and gouda smoked chicken sausage, and spinach. Check out the recipe below:

Ingredients:
3 medium sweet potatoes
Holmes Smokehouse 5 pecan smoked apple and gouda smoked chicken sausage (Publix)
2 bags of 12 oz spinach
3 tablespoons of coconut milk
1 large squash
2 cups of tricolor quinoa
Ground cinnamon
Sea salt
Goat cheese (optional)


Directions:
  1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
  2. While the oven is preheating slice your sweet potatoes. You can slice them in cubes or medallions, whichever way you prefer. See the picture for how I sliced mine.
  3. Once diced coat two pans with cooking spray, and then spread the sweet potatoes evenly amongst the two.
  4. Once sweet potatoes are sliced spray them with cooking spray and drizzle one tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil on each pan, sprinkle with cinnamon, and then place them in the oven for 30 minutes.
  5. Slice the chicken sausage and set aside. After the sweet potatoes have been cooking for 30 minutes, add the sausage on top of the sweet potatoes and cook for 15-20 more minutes.
  6. Cook the spinach in two tablespoons of olive oil using sea salt and the Olive Garden Garlic and Herb seasoning and set aside.
  7. Rinse the 2 cups of quinoa in cold water and drain fully before cooking. Bring to a boil with 4 cups of water, 2 tablespoons of coconut milk, and a pinch of sea salt. Once the quinoa has been brought to a boil, lower it to a simmer, cover, and cook until the water is gone. (Follow the instructions on the package if they differ).
  8. While the quinoa is boiling chop the squash, spray it with cooking spray and season it with Olive Garden’s Garlic and Herb Seasoning.
  9. Coat a 9×13 inch pan with cooking spray.
  10. Once the quinoa is done cooking take it out and spread 4 cups of it evenly across the pre-coated pan.
  11. Take 1 tablespoon of coconut milk and spread it over the first layer of quinoa. Evenly spread all of your spinach, and 1 pan of roasted sweet potatoes and sausage over that first layer.
  12. Take 3 cups of cooked quinoa and spread it over the sweet potatoes, sausage. Finally add your squash on top and put it in the oven for 15-20 minutes.
  13. Take out of the oven and keep covered with aluminum foil.
  14. Serve with a tablespoon of goat cheese sprinkled on top if you like.

This makes a lot so you’ll have food to last you for a while. Try it out and let me know what you think in the comments!
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