Quinoa Paella

I don't seem to react as badly to quinoa as I do to wheat or rice, and I like it a lot, so I still eat it occasionally. I've made this dish a few times and the previous incarnations (involving tomato) haven't been very popular with the kids, but this version I omitted the tomato and everybody ate it. Not necessarily with cries of enthusiasm, but so long as most of it went into them rather than into the chickens tomorrow morning I'm okay with that. I usually add prawns to this recipe but didn't have any this time; add them if you wish (I dislike 'em but the rest of the family are fans).

3/4 cup quinoa, rinsed
1 1/2 cup chicken stock or water
knob of butter
2 small onions, diced
1 cooked chicken breast, shredded
150g diced ham
1 cooked sausage, diced
1 chorizo, diced
1 garlic clove, diced
1/2 tsp chilli
1/2 red capsicum, diced
1 carrot, grated
1/2 cup cabbage, finely shredded
1/2 frozen spinach
chicken stock
1 tbsp paprika
salt and pepper

Cook the quinoa in stock or water until tender, using the absorption method. Meanwhile saute the onion in the butter, adding the meats and other vegetables when the onion is golden, then the garlic, chilli and other seasonings. Stir, adding tablespoonfuls of chicken stock occasionally if it's sticking to the pan. When everything is nicely browned and flavoursome stir in the drained quinoa and heat through, adding more stock if necessary.

I Aten't Dead

And I do still cook pretty much every day. I just haven't been inspired to find or create new recipes for a while so have not had much to blog about. But I discovered a recipe for Spinach and Lemon Quinoa Bake today which was extremely nommy, and since I tweaked it a bit I wanted to write down the modifications before I forgot.

We've acquired a vegan housemate in the last few months, and since I am possessed by a compulsion to feed people, we generally cook and eat vegan meals together 3-4 nights a week then do our own thing the rest of the time. I cook a lot of vegan food anyway, but I rarely modify very non-vegan recipes to make them vegan, since that generally involves substituting with fake dairy products and frankly, since none of the rest of us have a problem with dairy, I'd rather just not bother. But this one sounded yummy, plus it would be a variation on my popular silverbeet rice pie which our housemate (who is intolerant to rice as well) can eat. Since I'm still sticking with a lower-carb diet and have largely eliminated rice, quinoa is slightly lower in carbs and higher in protein than rice so is a better option for me too.

I don't have a lemon zester, so I did thinly slice some zest off and chuck it in, but mostly relied on lemon juice instead. The zest would definitely be better, so go with that if you have a better option for parting it from its lemon than picking it out of a cheese grater with a toothpick.

Ingredients

• 1 cup quinoa, cooked in 3 cups water
• olive oil, coconut oil
• 2 onions
• 2 cloves garlic, finely diced
• 1 bunch silverbeet, shredded
• 1 tsp fresh lemon zest
• 2 tsp flaxseed meal + 4 tbsp water
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 300mL medium tofu, drained
• 2 tbsp tahini
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• salt, pepper
• 1 large tomato
• almond meal

Slowly saute the onion and garlic in a mix of olive and coconut oil until caramelised. Add the zest and shredded silverbeet and cook down, adding more olive oil if necessary. Meanwhile, combine the flaxseed meal and water and leave to sit til it coagulates a bit. Then combine tofu, flaxseed mixture, tahini, lemon juice and seasonings in the blender until smooth. Combine the tofu mixture with the silverbeet and the quinoa, and pour into a baking tray. Top with sliced tomatoes and a sprinkling of ground almonds. Bake at 180 for an hour, let sit for a few minutes, then serve.

Chicken and Quinoa Soup

Beth and Katy both devoured this soup when I made it last week, so the recipe is a definite keeper. We had roast chicken for dinner tonight, so I decided I would make this soup again from the leftovers (and I'm actually motivated to make stock from the carcass tonight since I can think of an immediate use for it).

Chicken and Quinoa Soup
1/3 cup quinoa, rinsed
2 cups water or chicken stock
1/2 small potato, grated and finely minced
2 Brussels sprouts, finely shredded
1/2 cup cooked chicken, diced
1/2 cup corn kernels
1-2 tbsp cornflour dissolved in water
oregano, black pepper and salt to taste

Boil the quinoa and the potato til the quinoa's "tails" are beginning to loosen, then add the rest of the ingredients and cook until quinoa is fully cooked. Pour in cornflour and water, and stir until soup thickens (add more cornflour and water if soup seems to thin after five minutes or so). Serve to pickiest eater and watch her scrape her bowl clean.

Next time, I will add finely chopped broccoli florets and increase the amount of potato, which appears to be undetectable.