Quinoa Snap Pea Salad

You may have heard that we had an earthquake in D.C. on Tuesday. No, that doesn't really have anything to do with this recipe other than that it's what we had for dinner later that night (after evaluating the damage to our apartment and having several drinks to settle our nerves) (okay, the drinking was just me). Due to all the excitement and commotion, I forgot to take a picture of it that night -- so you all will have to settle with a cellphone pic snapped of my lunch leftovers the next day. They were still delicious, by the way.

Quinoa Snap Pea Salad
From Food & Wine

• 1/2 pound sugar snap peas
• 1 1/2 cups quinoa, rinsed and drained
• 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/2 cup salted roasted pumpkin seeds
• 1/2 cup minced chives

In a small saucepan of boiling salted water, simmer the peas until bright green and crisp-tender, about 1 minute. Drain and spread out on a large plate to cool, then pat dry. Cut the peas on the diagonal into 1-inch pieces.

In a small saucepan, combine the quinoa with 2 cups of water and bring to a boil. Cover and cook over low heat until all of the water has evaporated and the quinoa is tender, about 15 minutes. Uncover and fluff the quinoa, then transfer to a large bowl and let cool to room temperature.

In a bowl, combine the oil and vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Add the peas to the quinoa with the tomatoes, pumpkin seeds, chives and dressing; stir. Season with salt and pepper and serve at room temperature or lightly chilled.

Quinoa and Squash Gratin

How bummed out are you about this whole New York Times paywall thing? Personally, I read a lot more than 20 articles on the Times website a month, especially in their Dining & Wine section. Every recipe I've tried from them has been pretty stellar. Fortunately, it seems that if you click on a link to an article from social media or a search engine, it doesn't count toward your 20-articles-per-month allotment -- so all you really have to do is follow @nytimesdining on Twitter, since they post the link to every article and recipe. But that takes all the fun out of browsing! Browsing is what first led me to this awesome quinoa and squash gratin recipe from last fall. It's fairly simple to put together, is a real crowd pleaser, and holds up very well as lunch leftovers the next day. Grabbing the recipe was definitely worth using up one of my 20 articles.

Quinoa and Squash Gratin
From the New York Times

• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• Salt to taste
• 2 to 3 garlic cloves (to taste), minced
• 1 1/2 pounds summer squash, diced (I used 2 zucchini and 1 yellow squash)
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
• Freshly ground pepper to taste
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup cooked quinoa
• 1/2 cup grated Gruyère cheese (2 ounces)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Oil a two-quart baking dish or gratin. Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large, heavy skillet, and add the onion. Cook, stirring, until tender, about five minutes. Add a generous pinch of salt and the garlic. Cook, stirring, until fragrant, 30 seconds to a minute. Add the summer squash, thyme and rosemary. Cook, stirring often, until the squash is tender but not mushy, about 10 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and remove from the heat.

Beat the eggs in a large bowl, and stir in the squash mixture, the cooked quinoa and the cheese. Mix well and season, then scrape into the baking dish. Place in the oven, and bake 35 minutes or until it’s set and the top is lightly browned. Serve hot, warm or room temperature.

Southwestern Quinoa & Sweet Potato Salad

I love this salad so much that it's usually the first recipe I tell people to make when they want to try quinoa for the first time. It's super easy to throw together, not to mention crazy delicious. It has a great combination of textures: chewy quinoa, creamy avocado, and crunchy bell pepper. Plus the always wonderful flavors of lime juice and cilantro... yes please!

Southwestern Quinoa & Sweet Potato Salad
From How to Cook Everything Vegetarian

• 1 cup uncooked quinoa (or 2 1/2 cups cooked)
• 1 large or 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and diced into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1 bell pepper, diced
• 1/4 cup minced red onion
• 1 avocado, peeled, pitted and diced
• Cayenne pepper, salt, black pepper
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Juice of 1/2 lime (or a whole lime if it's not very juicy)
• 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped

First, cook the quinoa: put it in a saucepan with water to cover by at least an inch and a big pinch of salt. Bring to a simmer and cook until it's done (taste often to check; it should take between 10 and 20 minutes; add more water if it gets dry but isn't done yet). Drain and rinse in a fine mesh strainer.

Meanwhile, cook the sweet potatoes: put them in another saucepan with water to cover and simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes, or until fork tender. Drain well.

In a large bowl, combine the quinoa, sweet potatoes, bell pepper, red onion, and avocado. Season with salt and pepper to taste, along with a sprinkle of cayenne pepper. In a separate bowl, whisk together the olive oil and lime juice, then add to the quinoa mixture and toss to coat. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve.

Peruvian Quinoa-Vegetable Soup

I have the greatest memories of my trip to Peru with Joe. There's seldom a day that goes by when I don't think about something we did, whether it was the main event (hiking the Inca Trail) or something random but memorable (like paying a woman 2 soles at a train station so I could take a picture with her llama).

Our culinary adventures were equally memorable. We tried alpaca, guinea pig (hey, I wasn't a vegetarian yet), stuffed rocoto chiles, and those most delicious of cookies, alfajores. And some ceviche when we were in Lima. And lots of Inka Kola and pisco sours to wash it all down!

Dinner.

This Peruvian-inspired soup I made for dinner (borrowed from the lovely cookbook The 30-Minute Vegan by Mark Reinfeld and Jennifer Murray) doesn't have any of that stuff in it, but it does have some traditionally Peruvian ingredients. Like quinoa, which has been an important staple in the Andes for 6,000 years. Even the use of soy sauce is authentically Peruvian, since a lot of the cuisine in that country was influenced by Chinese immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which led to a fusion cuisine called chifa.

The soup's not much to look at, but it's delicious, filling, and healthy, and it reminds me of a great trip I took. Not bad for such quick work.

Peruvian Quinoa-Vegetable Soup

• 7 cups water or vegetable stock (or a mix)
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 3/4 cup uncooked quinoa
• 1 1/2 cups chopped potatoes (purple potatoes if you can find them)
• 1 large carrot, sliced
• 3/4 cup diced yellow onion
• 4 large garlic cloves, minced
• 1 cup sliced cabbage
• 1 seeded and minced jalapeno pepper
• 2 large tomatoes, chopped
• 1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro
• 1/4 cup minced fresh Italian parsley
• 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper, or to taste

Place the water and soy sauce in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the quinoa. Begin prepping the vegetables and place them in the pot as you go. Start with the potatoes, carrot, onion, garlic, cabbage, jalapeno, and tomatoes. Cook until the potatoes are tender and the quinoa is cooked, about 20 minutes from when the quinoa was added. Add the cilantro, parsley, and salt and pepper to taste.

Variations: You can saute the onions and garlic in 2 tablespoons of olive oil for extra flavor before adding the water, quinoa, and remaining ingredients. For extra protein, you could also add 1 pound of extra-firm tofu, cut into small cubes, after adding the veggies.

Curried Quinoa Salad with Cucumber-Mint Raita

First recipe on the new blog! Woo! Good times. I figured tonight's dinner was as worthy of a blog post as any, so why not start off with it? This is a great and very different recipe from the most recent issue of Cooking Light, a magazine that often frustrates me (some months it contains very few vegetarian recipes). But this one was kind of fun.

It's the kind of grain/vegetable salad, served at room temperature, that I'm so drawn to during hot summer weather. It has a nice savory-sweet balance: the curried quinoa is salty and spicy, mango and currants add sweetness, and celery provides just the right amount of crunch. A minty raita ties it all together.

This is a great vegetarian meal because quinoa has lots of protein. In fact, it's a "complete" protein, meaning that it has pretty much all the amino acids that people need. If you haven't tried it, you should -- it's a delightfully chewy little grain.

Curried Quinoa Salad with Cucumber-Mint Raita

• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 2 teaspoons curry powder
• 1 garlic clove, pressed or minced
• 1 cup uncooked quinoa
• 2 cups water
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 diced peeled mango
• 1/2 cup diced celery
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced scallions
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• 3 tablespoons dried currants (*note: you can find these near the raisins in the grocery store)
• 1/4 cup finely diced peeled cucumber
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh mint
• 1 six-ounce carton plain low-fat yogurt
• 1 five-ounce package fresh baby spinach

Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add curry powder and garlic to pan; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add quinoa and 2 cups water; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 10-15 minutes or until tender. Remove from heat; stir in salt. Cool completely.

Add mango, diced celery, scallions, chopped cilantro, and currants to cooled quinoa; toss gently.

Combine cucumber, mint, and yogurt in a small bowl, and stir well. Divide spinach evenly among 4 plates, and top each serving with about 1 and 1/4 cup quinoa mixture and about 2-3 tablespoons raita.