I made this salad last night as part of dinner from bits and pieces I found in the fridge and pantry. It's not only vegetarian but vegan too!

Years ago, when I first started setting foot in a kitchen, I made mainly baked goods. To be more specific, those cake mixes you can buy at the supermarket. I started with these because I never had to worry about main meals (thanks mum!) and I thought they would be the easiest. Sadly I could not even make cake from the packet. I know......

Now I realise it's because I always over beat the batter and my mum would buy the cheapest cake mixes that always looked good when fresh out of the oven but were hard as a rock after a day. Come to think of it, I'm not sure why I didn't just give up then and step away from the oven!

I persisted and eventually I was starting to search up easy recipes online I could use. I stuck firmly to the recipes I had, believing that if I even turned the oven one degrees more than specified, my cakes would be ruined! Baked goods are unpredictable that way; they never look like the ingredients they started as. And that makes baking so magical to me. Nevertheless, I bought many ingredients I had to throw out in the end as I had no other use for them.

It took me YEARS to feel comfortable enough to start omitting and replacing ingredients in recipes! First it was with savoury dishes then with the sweets and now I'm finally feeling a little bit more comfortable writing up my own recipes. This is where this recipe came in. I'd only heard about quinoa a year or so ago and I hadn't made anything with quinoa in it for a while (despite my last post also being a quinoa recipe!) so I decided to make a salad. I had a browse online for some recipes and found most recipes had ingredients I did not have. I had no salad greens, no lemon, no meat. Yeh my fridge was quite barren..... The idea of a quinoa salad was already in my mind and I knew I could not let it go so I did what I could with what little I had. And it turned out great!

Maybe you've never heard of quinoa, maybe you're ready to try your first quinoa recipe or maybe you've made quinoa a million times. Whatever your quinoa knowledge may be, go look in the fridge and pantry and put whatever looks good in this salad with some quinoa. The more colourful and vibrant it is the better!         

For those that still want a recipe as a guideline continue reading =)

 
Serves: 2 large serves
Preparation and Cooking Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

Salad
1 cup quinoa
3 cups water or stock
Half a medium sweet potato
1 medium sized potato
1 small carrot
1/2 cup chickpeas
1 1/2 tablespoons sun dried tomatoes
Half a small avocado
Half an orange

Dressing
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
1/2 tablespoon oil from sundried tomatoes
1/2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Method
1. Pre-heat oven to 170degrees celcius
2. Dice up sweet potato, potato and carrot and place them on a baking tray with foil. Give them a light spray with olive oil and some salt and pepper to taste. Put in the oven for 10-15mins or until light brown
3. Place 1 cup of quinoa in 3 cups of stock/water in a saucepan (I used vegetable stock as it gives the quinoa more flavour. Quinoa is very good at soaking up the flavour of stock!) Bring it to the boil then lower the heat so it just simmers for 15minutes or until the quinoa turns opaque and splits. Look at the picture. Most if not all the water should be absorbed. I don't think you can overcook quinoa anyway.... 
4. Dice half an avocado
5. Cut an orange in half and peel half then dice into segments. Cut the other half of the orange into segments and eat while waiting for the quinoa and roast veg to be ready!
6. Once the quinoa and vegetables are ready place them on a plate. Add the chickpeas, sundried tomatoes, avocado and orange.
7. Place the vinegar and oil in the salad and lightly toss the salad with a spoon. (You could toss in a bowl then place on a plate but I'm lazy and less washing up!) If you used stock for the quinoa there's not much need to add salt but flavour with salt and pepper as desired. 
8. Eat slowly. It's delicious, I promise!

I saw the recipe for quinoa corn fritters on one of my favourite blogs Apples Under My Bed and luckily I wasn't scared off by the long recipe! These are actually quite simple to make and make a delicious snack. My mum had bought several husks of corn and this recipe came at just the right time! I made very small modifications due more to the lack of ingredients in my fridge than anything else.

This is the 3rd quinoa recipe I have posted. See another Meatless Monday post and a dessert one too. Lets see who makes all 3 recipes in one day ;)?

Adapted from Apples Under My Bed

Serves: 5 fritters
Preparation and Cooking Time: 45min

Ingredients
1/4 cup dry Quinoa
1/2 cup water
1 large corn cob
1 clove of Garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 egg
1.5 heaped tablespoons (38g) Wholemeal Plain Flour
1/4 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Ground Cumin
3 teaspoons Worcestershire Sauce
A pinch of Sea Salt and Freshly Cracked Pepper

Method

1. Rinse the dry quinoa under cold water and then put it in a pot with water. 
2. Simmer, covered, for 15 minutes or until the liquid is absorbed and the germ turns opaque and splits from the seed- see picture 
3. Shave the corn kernels from the corn cob. 
4. Place corn kernels in a pan with the crushed garlic on high heat and sauté for 2-3 minutes until it smells heavenly and a pretty yellow. 
5. Transfer corn to a large mixing bowl.
6. Add the 1/2 cup cooked quinoa, beaten egg, flour, baking powder, cumin, Worchestershire sauce, salt and pepper to the mixing bowl with the corn. Stir ingredients together until a wet mixture is formed (See picture below)
7. Heat 2 teaspoons of the olive oil over low-medium heat. 
8. Form small round balls by spooning up 1 tablespoon of mixture and roughly forming it in your hand. 
9. Put the balls on the pan and after 1minute push the pattie flat with the back of a spoon. The mixture is very wet but it will hold if you treat it with care! 
10. Cook for another 5minutes then flip to cook for another 5 minutes until it is nice and brown.
11. Serving suggestions: alongside poached eggs and bacon at breakfast, as part of a salad at lunch, as an appetiser with some sweet chilli dipping sauce or alongside grilled meat or chicken and a big salad at dinner.Or just eat them on their own ;) 

Per fritter: Energy: 551kJ, protein: 5g, Fat: 4.5g, Saturated fat: 0.8g, Carbohydrate: 15.9g, Sodium: 60mg 


This is what the mixture should look like. It looks pretty wet!

 
Sizzling away in the pan...

 
Tada done!!


Nutritionally speaking......
These fritters are a good snack and can be part of a great meal too! They're not too energy dense if you're only having 1-2 and have a good protein content, low saturated fat and low sodium (depending on how much salt you decide to add!) They're also going to be quite high in fibre from the corn and quinoa (although not calcuated) so will keep you full for longer than expected. Plus another fun way to cook quinoa right?  

I must admit my siblings did not enjoy this but I think it was because of the cumin and Worchestershire taste so feel free to substitute this for any other kind of flavouring. 

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Let me know how you cook quinoa or what vegetarian recipes you are trying this week.

I was having a sweet tooth (do I always have a sweet tooth?) and really wanted to perfect a quinoa recipe I had tried to make twice before.

I have previously mentioned the great benefits of quinoa in a blog post but if you need a refresher click here!

Just a reminder, quinoa is gluten and wheat free and can be used in sweet and savoury dishes. I had previously used it to make quinoa with roasted cauliflower and pumpkin but the versatility of quinoa set me out to search for a sweet dish. This is what I found:

Recipe adapted from vegan-food


Makes:14
Cost: $0.41 per cupcake

Preparation time: 20 minutes + 10minutes in fridge

Baking Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

• 3/4 Cup cooked quinoa
• 1/3 Cup vegetable oil (I used olive oil)
• 2/3 Cup white sugar (Or low GI sugar)
• 1 Teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 Teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 Teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 Cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 Cup wholemeal flour
• 1/2 Cup white flour
• 4 Tablespoons water
• 6.5 Tablespoons low fat/skim milk
• 1 Large egg

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180-200 degrees celcius
2. Rinse 1/3 cup of dried quinoa (This will make about 3/4-1cup of cooked quinoa)
3. Place rinsed quinoa in a covered pot with about 2 cups of water. 
4. Bring the quinoa to a boil, and simmer for approximately 20 minutes and add water if necessary. 
5. After 25minutes take the quinoa off the stove, drain if necessary and allow to cool (in fridge is quicker). The quinoa should be fluffy and opaque looking and the liquid should mostly be all absorbed.
6. Line cupcake tin with paper liners.
7. In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients well with a wooden spoon. It should look like this: 

1. Bake at 180 degrees celcius for about twenty minutes, or when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Per cupcake: Energy: 693kJ (165.5Cal) Fat: 5.3g Sat Fat: 1.0g Carbohydrates: 24.4g Protein: 4.1g Sodium: 127.4mg Fibre: 2g  

Here they come out of the oven....



Notice how it looks bumpy on the top? I think the quinoa hardens with the exposure to heat and it offers a grittiness and crunch on the outside but the inside is super soft.



A look on the inside....
The flecks of yellow are the quinoa casing.

 
These are ones I had made previously when I was still perfecting the recipe. I added some ready made frosting as they looked a bit bare. I would have tried making my own frosting but I was in a rush and the shops had closed!

I have made these cupcakes 3 times now and each time I have added more milk and water (notice how wet it looks in the mixing picture?). This made sure they were nice and moist. Timing in the oven is also very crucial as they can dry out easily if left for too long in the oven. The original recipe called for very little liquid and the flour did not have enough liquid to go with it. I added in an egg to make it more cohesive as the original batch crumbled away. I always feel wholemeal cupcakes need a bit more milk or water as they can turn out dry so experiment!

The cupcakes were absolutely delicious the 3rd time round. The first batch fell apart and were dry. The second batch were a lot more moist but still a bit hard. Three's the charm as they were soft and mosit and so deliciously chocolatey! I brought the 2nd batch into work previously and everyone said they loved it and it didn't taste any different to normal cupcakes. I think they may have lied a bit =P. I can't say you can not taste the grittiness from the wholemeal flower or quinoa at all but it's very acceptable (especially if you had my 3rd batch!).  It looked like a normal chocolate cupcake and tasted 90% like a normal cupcake!

Nutritionally Speaking....
These cupcakes fare nutritionally better than many of the commercial cupcakes being low in saturated fat and higher in protein and fibre. They are a great snack on the go and was able to satisfy my sweet tooth and will be more filling than other commercial cupcakes. However notice the nutrition information is only for 1 cupcake and it may be hard to stop at one with these.... also the nutrition information does not have frosting and the addition of frosting will add to calories. If you are having more than 1 of these cupcakes the energy/calories do add up and no amount of good protein and fibre will discount that!

So what should I make next with quinoa?

Here is a dish with a fancy ingredient that most have probably never heard of. It's Quinoa (Pronounced keen-wa) and it's my new favourite seed (that is used as a grain)! This seed originated in South America thousands of years ago but is now found in many health food stores and touted as a super food.

• If you're looking for superfoods, direct your attention to quinoa cause it's up there as one of the best! 
• Low GI unlike white bread
• High in fibre to keep you full for longer
• High in protein to also keep you full for longer
• It contains all the essential amino acids which are the building blocks of protein in your body. Most cereals lack lysine while most legumes lack methionine which is why vegetarians are often advised to eat both food groups. Quinoa is a great source of protein for vegans and vegetarians.  
• Good source of manganese, magnesium, iron, copper and phosphorous  
• Gluten and wheat free for those with intolerances or coeliac disease
• NASA wants to use it

But what does it taste like?

• Quinoa has a very mild nutty taste 
• It has a fluffy yet grainy texture 
• Some say it tastes creamy too
• It's great in sweet and savoury dishes so very versatile 
• Have it in stews, soups, salads, curries, pilafs, desserts, puddings   
• Have it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack; Is there anything more versatile??

I bought mine at Woolworths in the health food aisle but I'm sure other supermarkets have it as well. They are also available in most health stores.

Some places also have quinoa flour or quinoa pasta. Helgas sells wholgrain quinoa and flaxseed bread. 

Recipe: Quinoa with Roasted Cauliflower and Pumpkin
Serves 4
Cost: $1.50/serve

Ingredients
1 cup Quinoa
300g Cauliflower florets
Juice of half a lemon
2 cloves garlic, peeled
500g pumpkin

Oops forgot to take photos of rest of process

1. Preheat oven to 200 °C
2. Chop up pumpkins into bite sized chunks
3. Chop up cauliflower into little tree like florets
4. Place cauliflower and pumpkin onto roasting dish and drizzle lemon juice and olive oil on it
5. Add the chopped garlic to roasting dish and a bit of salt and pepper to taste
6. Cook for 20-30min until the veggies are lightly browned and a fork pierces it easily
7. While the veggies are cooking, rinse quinoa in water and place drained quinoa in a saucepan
8. Place 1.5cups of water for every 1 cup of quinoa. Simmer, covered, for 15 minutes or until the liquid is absorbed and the germ turns opaque and splits from the seed- see picture.
9. Toss cooked quinoa with the pumpkin and cauliflower and serve!

Other ways to enjoy quinoa

• Add a bit of soft cheese to the dish 
• You can also add your own mix of herbs and spices (My siblings aren't great fans of these so my dishes often do not contain them)
• Substitute rice or cous cous in your dish for some quinoa next time
• You can also use quionoa to stuff vegetables
• You can also use stock instead of water
• Nuts such as almonds, cashews and pistachios also go great with quinoa
• I hear roasted cauliflower with a bit of bread crumbs is also really great
• Although it's meatless monday you can also add a bit of grilled meat to the mix 

I used some left over quinoa and added baby spinach, sun dried tomatoes, mushrooms, fetta cheese and roast prok with a tablespoon of the gravy from it. It was super yummy and more colourful than the other pictures =P

• Dietriffic
• WH Foods
• Green Grapes Nutrition