Quinoa Recipes

[GoingNuts]

I had forgotten about this thread. I want to make the quinoa confetti salad. 

[Macabre]

Those look so good!!

[becca]

McC, I saw this and thought of you.  Veggie and has pecans, which are safe for you guys right?  Looks yummy!  Though i see at the bottom:  11 WW points.   

http://www.cookingquinoa.net/apple-pecan-and-goat-cheese-quinoa-salad

Ingredients

For the salad:
1 cup quinoa
2 cups water or vegetable broth
2 apples, diced (you can use your favorite variety)
1/2 cup toasted pecans, roughly chopped
1/2 cup dried cranberries
2 cups fresh baby spinach, roughly chopped
6 oz crumbled goat cheese
For the dressing:
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1-2 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp dijon mustard
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
salt, to taste
Instructions

Bring water or vegetable broth to a boil in a small pot. Add quinoa, lower to a simmer and cover. Cook for 15-20 minutes, checking periodically, until all water/broth is absorbed and quinoa has cooked.
While quinoa is cooking, prepare the other ingredients.
Chop the apples, pecans, and spinach.
Make the dressing by combining all ingredients in a mason jar with a lid and shaking to combine or in a bowl and whisking to mix.
Once quinoa is finished cooking, combine quinoa with apples, pecans, cranberries, and spinach.
Toss with dressing.
Top with goat cheese and serve.
Enjoy!
Notes

Servings 6, Calories 409, Fat 26.7g, Carbohydrates 31g, Protein 13.6g, Cholesterol 30mg, Sodium 148mg, Fiber 4.9g, Sugars 9.7g, WW Pts 11

[becca]

Another one from my favorite quinoa blog:  Might be too carby for me, unless I had it as a side to a proetien dish, but then it is a lot of work for a side dish.  Maybe for a party as an app?  They look yummy to me!  Have not tried them.  Was thinking McC and her family, or Mookie would like them, as they are meatless and look pretty hearty.


http://www.cookingquinoa.net/curried-sweet-potato-quinoa-patties-with-spicy-yogurt-sauce

[krasota]

becca, for the first eleven to twelve years DH and I were together, I was vegetarian.  We were living or cooking together for most of those years and always made vegetarian main dishes.  When he needed more protein, he had meat on the side.  A burger or chicken breast is easy to make ahead.  Or meatballs.  Or broiled fish.  Whatever he wanted--but it wasn't the main dish.

So make the quinoa patties!  They look great.  They fit *our* complex carb requirements very well (we don't do refined grains or simple starches), but we'd probably have steamed or baked chicken or even chicken poached with coconut milk on the side.  Something super simple. 

Or bacon.  Bacon's always a winner.

Let the protein be your side.

[twinturbo]

I don't think she can for medical reasons. The ADA (diabetes association) Q&A addresses quinoa as a slightly more glycemic friendly carb but still to treat it ultimately as a carb. For that reason I have to limit my father's steam quinoa intake even organic whole steamed quinoa. I know sweet potato is a little friendlier but I bet the carb count would be dicey without a well calculated portion control.

Maybe if she swapped out some of the quinoa and sweet potato for a legume. That would also perform some binding effect and add more fiber to lower net carbs.

[Macabre]

Oh wow--I hadn't seen these two recipes!! Thanks becca!

[becca]

Krasota and TT, I strive for under 50 carbs a day these days, for the management of type 2 diabetes.  I cannot have carbs be a main course, unless they are a big plate of salad greens and I often do that, topped with protein, and feta, etc...  I use fat to bulk up calroies in a meal.  I cannot bulk it up even with complex carbs.   

So, think:  1/2 cup brown rice tops, as a splurge, 1/2 baked sweet potato at dinner, A sweetened Greek yogurt is 20 carbs.  Those things have me at 50% of my daily carb intake. 

My preference is to choose foods that give me bulk and quantity, since I get hungry!  Broccoli, cabbage, Kale, spring greens, raw veggies, and a bit of starchy veggies like spaghetti squash, other squashes, veggies soups with some sasuage and a few beans, etc...  I use a lot of higher protein, lower carb dairly like cheese and greek yogurt. 

I do cheat, but to maintain my A1C in thr 5's, I have to eat like this most of the time.  I can do that with a diet of up to 100 carbs a day, as long as I spread them out at each meal and for my snacks.  But for weight loss I need to go down to 50. 

[becca]

McC, glad you saw these!  You should follow her blog.  Even though she is selling e-ook books, she has loads of free recipes. 

[krasota]

Aye.  Two of these would be DH's carb serving, but he has 45g per meal. He'd make me skip the chutney, though, because it's all sugar (and mango is off limits here).   And he'd make an exception for the corn meal, which he generally won't eat because it's too simple.  Then he'd have some meat and all the non-carby veggies he wanted. 

He's hypoglycemic, not diabetic.  So he has a balance of 40-30-30 carbs-fat-protein and must consume close to 2000 calories a day to stay stable and functioning.  Higher metabolism and a twitchy pancreas that we want to coddle so that it doesn't give out.

I couldn't eat more than two of them--even as a main course.  Too dense.  Perhaps we have different ideas of portion size for a main course.  I'd probably just eat one if there were other foods served.

Back to topic: 
He's eating quinoa for lunch today.  With apple, fennel, roast chicken, onion, and sweet pepper. 

[becca]

Oh that sounds good together.  How do you dress that krasota? 

I do use quinoa, largely in salads, which is why I share some of the recipes I get from that blog.  I basically dice a large quantity of veggies, and mix it with either a balsamic or lemony dressing.  Toss in some feta or add a protein, or have a salmon burger or such on the side. 

[Macabre]

Oh fennel--yum. We use that instead of celery, as DS is allergic to it (has had contact reactions for years--thought it was OAS, then one Easter got hives from obvious cross contamination on our veggie tray--then had an immunocap done--really allergic but fine with it cooked). Anyway I don't like celery and find fennel a great sub. 

[krasota]

I have no idea how he seasons it.  His lunch these days is quinoa/millet/lentils/beans (choose one or more), which is already cooked.  To his plate, he adds bits of the veggies.  He carves some slices off a fennel bulb, adds quarter to half an apple in bits, slices up some sweet pepper(s), and adds a little bit of chopped onion (he likes red ones).  I don't know if he adds water or seasons it beyond good olive oil and smoked salt.  Then he nukes it, probably with a plate cover.  He works from home, so he just pulls it together in between writing snippets of code.

His histamine sensitivity has reared its ugly head bigtime these last several months, so he is trying to eat pretty low histamine and mind the glycemic index.  His diet is currently more limited than mine, which is saying something.

The chicken was roasted with salt, pepper (I think), and garlic.  Just pieces in a pan.  High temp to set skin, then low temp.  This reminds me--he threw away the drippings before I could eat them all.   

If it were MY plate, I'd shake up tarragon and white balsamic and prepared mustard and drizzle it over the top.  But he can't do the vinegar or mustard right now.

[becca]

LOL, he cooks like me.  Just throw it together.  Hard when someone asks for a recipe. 

I have *never*, that I recall, purchased or used fennel!  I have had it raw in a salad, and roasted in veggies eslewhere and thought, "I should try that!"  Maybe I will get some this week.  The flavor sounds appealing with apples.  I had imagined he was having a raw salad with those ingredients(aside from the chicken).

Cooking a pack of chicken tenders today/tonight. 

[buttons]

I made the curried sweet potato quinoa patties tonight, along with a salad of tomatoes, greens, spinach and avocado, and some crusty bread.  Was a hit!  The yogurt sauce was good.  The patties reminded me of felafel.  I subbed mango salsa for the chutney, figured it was close enough.