Portobello Shawarma and Quinoa Tabouleh

I’m always drawn to the flavors of Levantine cooking and the generous use of vegetables in varied dishes. A new book starts with those flavors and adds new ingredients to open up the possibilities of this style of cuisine. The book is Levant: New Middle Eastern Cooking from Tanoreen by Rawia Bishara, and I received a review copy. Her first book, Olives, Lemons, and Za’atar, stuck more closely to traditional recipes, but this time, she explores some new directions as she does at her New York restaurant Tanoreen. What I enjoyed about this book is that it gives you freedom to roam about a bit with traditional dishes. Rather than sticking to how a dish has always been made, new discoveries are celebrated and encouraged. The recipes are still inspired by Middle Eastern cooking but with a new perspective. For instance, the Shakshuka is a green version made with tomatillos, poblanos, and summer squash. Although hummus literally translates to chickpeas, here the concept is expanded into four variations, none of which include chickpeas. And, I can’t wait to try the Avocado Hummus. The Fall Fattoush is a twist on the familiar pita bread salad made with red cabbage, radicchio, and shredded beet. There’s a vegetarian Kibbie made with potatoes and spices that’s served on a lentil stew that looks perfect for a cold, fall day. There are meat dishes too like Harissa Baked Chicken, Tanoreen Spiced Cornish Hens, and Grilled Fish Kabobs. But, I got sidetracked among all the vegetable options and had to try the Portobello Shawarma and Quinoa Tabouleh first. 

This vegan shawarma starts with chopped Portobello mushrooms and lots of spices. The chopped mushrooms were combined with black pepper, ground coriander, cumin, turmeric, cardamom, nutmeg, chopped fresh garlic, olive oil, and white vinegar. The mixture was cooked in a heated skillet until the mushrooms were tender. I was surprised at the amount of vinegar but found that it gave the mixture just the right added flavor. The cooked mixture was intended to be served on fresh pita with sandwich toppings like cucumber, tomatoes, pickles, and tahini sauce. I went in more of an appetizer direction and served the mixture on homemade, baked pita chips, and topped it with chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, and herbs. The Quinoa Tabouleh is a lot like the traditional dish only with quinoa used in place of bulgur wheat. Diced fennel is suggested along with tomatoes and cucumbers, but since that’s not in season here I used chopped yellow zucchini instead. Lots parsley, cilantro, mint, green onions, and lemon gave it the expected flavors of tabouleh. 

I always like vegetarian dishes like this Portobello Shawarma, but these mushrooms actually caught me by surprise. The spices, garlic, and vinegar gave the mushrooms incredible flavor. They would have made a fantastic sandwich filling and were a fun topping for pita chips. The tabouleh was as fresh and bright as ever but just a little different with quinoa instead of bulgur wheat. It’s inspiring to see new takes like these on traditional dishes, and the results are delicious.

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Citrusy Quinoa Salad with Avocado, Cucumber, and Almonds

This is Thanksgiving week. I’m getting ready to bake bagels and start on a buttery pie crust. I’m double-checking my shopping list for how many total cups of cream I need before I rush out to gather the rest of the ingredients for the big day. Our menus for breakfast and the main meal are planned, and they’re full of rich and decadent things suited to a holiday that’s all about food. And, now I’m showing you a not-so-Thanksgiving-y light and lovely quinoa salad. Maybe think of this as the perfect day after Thanksgiving dish. The combination of Ruby Red grapefruit and avocado is what got my attention. The salad is found in The Kitchn Cookbook , and I received a review copy. It’s actually more than a cookbook. It begins with tips for setting up or reorganizing your kitchen. There are specific ideas for how to arrange cookware and utensils, but more importantly, it gets you thinking about how you use your kitchen and what will work best for you. There are also photos and ideas from several very different but all beautiful kitchens. Then, the book has you covered with tips for stocking your pantry and some basic cooking techniques. This leads up the recipes section with dishes for every meal of the day plus sweet treats and party planning ideas. The recipes come with lots of suggestions for variations to make them your own. The Sweet Potato and Caramelized Onion Hash with Baked Eggs would be great as a vegetarian brunch dish, or roasted chicken or cooked sausage could be added. Homemade Potato Chips are offered either baked or fried. The Roasted Shrimp with Horseradish Ketchup is now on my to-try list because I realized I’ve never made homemade ketchup. And, I’ve somehow never tried the extremely popular Magic One-Ingredient Ice Cream that appeared TheKitchn.com. It’s made from frozen, very ripe bananas, and I can’t wait to make it. But, I had just received some Ruby Red grapefruits from my CSA, and this quinoa salad came first. 

I used a three-color mix of quinoa because I love the different colors, and I’ve heard the red and black varieties have more nutrients than white quinoa. It should be rinsed before being cooked, and the cooking process is a quick hands-off 20 minutes of simmering. After cooking, the quinoa was left to cool. Meanwhile, I made the vinaigrette with lemon juice, minced shallot, and sherry vinegar. Grapefruit sections were supremed and then chopped into big chunks. Almonds were toasted and chopped, and cucumber and celery were diced. The cooled quinoa was combined with the cucumber, celery, grapefruit, and some lemon zest. The vinaigrette was incorporated, and then the almonds were folded into the salad. I had a pretty head of butter lettuce from my CSA, so I served the quinoa salad in some lettuce leaves. It was topped with sliced avocado and crunchy, flaked sea salt. 

There are a lot of great flavors and textures here, and the sweet, citrusy grapefruit with the tender avocado was as delicious as always. I particularly love the mix of grapefruit, avocado, and shellfish, so I served roasted shrimp with the salad. Crisp celery and cucumber and crunchy nuts added nice variety. If you only add the avocado as a topping to each serving, the salad can be stored in the refrigerator for a few days. I think it would also be perfect with some sliced, leftover turkey. Happy Thanksgiving! 

Citrusy Quinoa Salad with Avocado, Cucumber, and Almonds 
Recipe reprinted with publisher’s permission from The Kitchn Cookbook . 

Serves 4 to 6 
Once we nailed down how to cook quinoa perfectly every time (our post on making quinoa still brings thousands of readers to our site every day), a whole new world of seed salads opened up. Tossed with grapefruit segments, cucumber, and toasted almonds, and topped with creamy avocado, this quinoa salad makes a great lunch dish, or a side for dinner. 

1 cup quinoa 
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 
2 cups low-sodium vegetable or chicken broth 
Zest and juice of 1/2 lemon (about 1 teaspoon zest and 1 1/2 tablespoons juice) 
1 large shallot, minced 
1/2 tablespoon sherry vinegar 
1 Ruby Red grapefruit 
1/3 seedless English cucumber (about 1/4 pound), unpeeled and diced small 
2 celery stalks, diced small 
1/2 cup sliced toasted almonds 
Kosher salt, to taste 
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste 
1 ripe avocado, thinly sliced, for serving 
Flaked sea salt 

Rinse the quinoa for 2 to 3 minutes in a fine-mesh strainer, rubbing vigorously. Drain. Heat a 2-quart saucepan over medium-high heat and add a teaspoon of oil. When the oil is hot, add the quinoa and cook, stirring to coat the quinoa with olive oil, for 1 minute. (The quinoa may pop, so be prepared to stir right away.) Pour in the broth, bring to a boil, cover, and turn the heat down to low. Cook for 15 minutes or until most of the liquid is absorbed. Turn off the heat and let the quinoa sit, with a folded dishtowel over the pot lid, for 5 minutes. Line a large baking sheet with parchment and spread out the cooked quinoa in an even layer. Let it cool while you prepare the remaining ingredients. 

Whisk together the lemon juice, shallot, and sherry vinegar. Slowly stream in the remaining oil while whisking, until the vinaigrette is emulsified. Set aside. To prep the grapefruit, peel away the top and bottom of the grapefruit rind until you can see the flesh. With a sharp knife, peel away all rind and pith along the curve of the grapefruit. Then cut between the white segments and cut out the flesh. Roughly chop the grapefruit segments and set aside. 

Transfer the quinoa to a large bowl and add the cucumber, celery, grapefruit, and lemon zest. Add the vinaigrette and toss gently. Fold in the almonds. Taste and adjust the salad to taste with salt and pepper. At serving time, top the salad with the avocado, a sprinkle of flaked sea salt, and freshly cracked black pepper. This dish will keep in the refrigerator for 1 day in a sealed container. 

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Quinoa, Almond, Cauliflower, Popped Sorghum

I’m always intrigued to learn new cooking techniques and flavor combinations, and that’s what great chefs offer. In the book Coi: Stories and Recipes by Daniel Patterson, of which I received a review copy, he shares not just the beautiful food as it’s presented at the restaurant but also what inspired it and how the dishes evolved. It’s not your standard cookbook with ingredient lists next to numbered instructions. This is a book of stories about food, cooking, foraging, sourcing, ingredients, flavors, and seasons. There are stories that introduce each dish and then a description of how the dish is created. For exact ingredient measurements, you flip to the back of the book. It puts more emphasis on the thought behind the food and gives you a broader understanding of the process and the goal. Regarding innovations in food, cooking, and presentation, while reading this book I was reminded of my reaction to the documentary El Bulli: Cooking in Progress. Months were spent testing dishes with complicated techniques and unbelievable styles of presentation. It was a form of art. But, I couldn’t help wondering what a restaurant might be like that instead spent that time working with seasonal, perfectly fresh ingredients and finding nuances in flavor based on how things had been grown or raised. So, I was thrilled to read Patterson’s explanation of his approach to haute cuisine. Rather than turning to expensive ingredients just for the sake of their price and cache, he writes: “I find it much more challenging-and rewarding-to construct an extraordinary dish out of ordinary ingredients… The farmers’ markets and the different farms that we work with directly bring us flavors from diverse ecosystems and soil types, which allow us greater range of expression than if we used products from only one area or farm. This way of sourcing ingredients provides both challenges and inspiration.” He's creating innovative food but with a focus on seasonality and place. Of course, not all of these dishes can be easily replicated at home. Some do require special equipment or more time to prepare than you usually wish to spend, but there’s something to learn on every page. And, most dishes could be simplified in ways to make them more doable at home. 

Did I mention this is beautiful food? The Inverted Cherry Tomato Tart with Black Olive, Basil is a perfect rectangle of crisp tuile made with black olives that sits on tomato mousse with peeled cherry tomatoes under that which sit on a layer of basil pesto. In the description of how the dish came about, other similar tarts are mentioned all inverted with a piece of tuile on top. I want to try them all or make up some of my own. The Crayfish and Spring Vegetable Stew with Spicy Crayfish Jelly isn’t made as a stew at all. All the components are prepared separately to keep the flavors “cleaner, brighter, and more energetic.” It’s artfully arranged with peas, fava beans, artichoke hearts, fennel, crayfish tails, and fava flowers. The dish New Olive Oil, Brassica, Charred Onion Broth is all about capitalizing on the flavor of just-pressed olive oil which is used in a puree of potatoes and dandelion greens, and the smoky, charred onion broth, used as a sauce here, is something I can’t wait to try. The dish I had to experiment with first, though, was the Quinoa, Almond, Cauliflower, Popped Sorghum. I don’t hide the fact that I have a serious popcorn problem. I love it and can never get enough. I knew that popping amaranth seeds is possible. I’ve tried it. The seeds are tiny, and they do pop but don’t amount to much. What I didn’t know is that you can pop sorghum kernels. I had never heard of this amazing fact before reading this book. I immediately got my hands on some whole grain sorghum and popped it. It’s delightfully small, but otherwise looks just like popcorn. The flavor is similar but different and maybe less buttery than popcorn. The rest of the dish is just as simple as popping sorghum. Quinoa was cooked, and red and white quinoa is suggested. I always have a blend of red, black, and white quinoa which I used. If using separate red and white quinoa, it would be fine to simplify by cooking them together rather than separately as directed. Next, cauliflower was roasted, and I used a pretty, locally-grown, green cauliflower. After roasting, the cauliflower was simmered on top of the stove until completely tender and then pureed with a little milk. I left the puree a little thicker than suggested and didn’t use a siphon for serving. A quick salad was made with the cooked and cooled quinoa, toasted almonds, some thinly sliced, raw cauliflower florets, and snipped chives. Just a touch of rice vinegar was added for seasoning along with some olive oil. To serve, the cauliflower puree was layered on the bottom covered by quinoa salad with popped sorghum on top. 

The almonds and minced chives were additions to this dish after it had been tried on the menu without them. It was perfect with the crunchy, toasted nuts and mild onion flavor of chives. It goes without saying that I enjoyed the popped sorghum element as well. I look forward to several more discoveries as I try more things from this lovely book. 

Quinoa, almond, cauliflower, and popped sorghum 
Recipe reprinted with publisher’s permission from Coi: Stories and Recipes. 

Yields 4, with extra cauliflower puree 

Ingredients 
Cauliflower puree 
- 1 x 250-g cauliflower
- 25 g pure olive oil 
- 100 g water 
- milk, as necessary 
- salt 

Popped sorghum 
- 50 g vegetable oil 
- 100 g sorghum
- salt 

To serve 
- 20 g white quinoa 
- 20 g red quinoa 
- 25 g toasted almonds 
- 1 small spoonful snipped chive 
- rice wine vinegar 
- fruity olive oil 
- popped sorghum 
- salt 

Recipe 
Cut small florets out of a head of cauliflower – they should be spoon-size when shaved. Cut the rest of the cauliflower into medium-size pieces and toss with the olive oil and salt. Put into a pan and roast in the oven at 400°F (200°C) until tender, stirring occasionally so they are lightly browned and barely tender. Pull out of the oven and onto the stove top, and add the water. Simmer until the water is absorbed and the cauliflower has collapsed. Blend until smooth, thinning with milk as necessary, and adjust seasoning with salt. The texture should be smooth and luscious, thick but just pourable. Pour into a siphon and charge twice. Keep warm. (This makes a terrific puree even without the siphon, it’s just a little more dense.) 

Cook white and red quinoa in separate pots of salted water, and simmer until tender. Start with 5 parts water and 1 part quinoa, and keep the simmer brisk and below a boil. Cook until the little white string-looking thing appears around the ball of the grain, and the texture is just tender. The texture of the quinoa is crucial – the grains should be cooked but perceptibly individual. Strain, rinse under cold water and drain. 

Heat the vegetable oil in a large pan until almost smoking. Add a thin later of sorghum and cover. Shake the pan occasionally, keeping the heat a little higher than you would with corn. When the popping sound diminishes considerably, empty the sorghum into a colander with holes just smaller than the size of the popped sorghum, and shake the colander to get rid of any broken or unpopped seeds. Season the popped sorghum with salt. 

Toast almonds deeply and cut into pieces slightly smaller than the popped sorghum. To serve, make a salad of the white and red quinoa, toasted almonds, shaved raw cauliflower (use small inside florets) and snipped chive. Season with rice wine vinegar, fruity olive oil, salt and pepper. Don’t make the salad acidic – use the vinegar only to brighten up the earthy/nutty tones. Dispense a bit of the cauliflower puree in the bottom of the bowl. Cover with the salad, and top with popped sorghum. 

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Spinach and Red Quinoa Salad with Pecans and Halloumi

I realize this just looks like a spinach salad, but there’s a lot more going on in there. For one, it was intended as a quinoa and spinach salad, and I did use the entire suggested amount of quinoa, but I had a lovely bunch of spinach and wanted to use every bit of it rather than only a couple of handfuls. So, the extra spinach is hiding a lot of the red quinoa. But, that’s not all. There are also chewy pieces of dried apricots, toasted pecans and pumpkin seeds, and a tangy dressing with pomegranate molasses and lemon juice. And, the grilled halloumi is seasoned with ras-el-hanout. All those lovely flavors combined to make much more than some simple, spinach salad. I found this dish in the book New Vegetarian Kitchen which was an impulse buy a few weeks back. I was standing in the coffee bar line at Whole Foods when I saw the bright green cover of this book on a display and naturally grabbed a copy to peruse while my cappuccino was being made. In it, there are things like Watermelon Curry on Black Lentil Cakes, Bhel Puri on Poppadom Crisps, Spring Vegetables with Crunchy Walnut Crumble and Harissa Mayonnaise, Vietnamese Tofu and Mango Salad Cups, and many other things I want to try. The variety of dishes including sweet, savory, starter, and main convinced me I needed to take this book home. 

The first step of making this salad is to cook three-quarters of a cup of red quinoa. Do you rinse your quinoa before cooking it? I never used to rinse quinoa or rice but I’ve started doing so lately. Quinoa has naturally-occurring saponins on the surface that could affect the taste if not rinsed away. Odds are that it was rinsed before being packaged, but I give it another rinse in a sieve just to be sure. So, rinsed quinoa was cooked, drained, and allowed to cool. Next, halloumi was sliced, brushed with olive oil, dusted with ras-el-hanout and grilled on each side on a grill pan. At the same time, pecans were toasted in the oven, and pumpkin seeds were added to the baking sheet for the last few minutes. I made a little extra dressing since I was also using extra spinach, and that included about four tablespoons of pomegranate molasses, two tablespoons of lemon juice, four tablespoons of olive oil, one crushed clove of garlic, a pinch of ground cumin, and some freshly ground black pepper. To build the salad, the cooled quinoa was placed in large bowl and topped with the dressing. Cleaned and chopped fresh spinach was added followed by some chopped dried apricots, minced red onion, and chopped parsley. Each serving of salad was topped with a few pieces of grilled halloumi and some pecans and pumpkin seeds. 

I’m easily drawn to any dish with halloumi. I love the salty flavor it adds and the firm texture that takes so well to grilling or searing. The spices that mixed with the dressing, sweet dried apricots, nuts, and parsley were an added bonus. This tasty meal-of-a-salad indicates that my impulse buy was a good one. 

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Entertaining, Chilean Style

I was recently transported, metaphorically speaking, to Chile for an evening of learning about the country’s food and wine. I’d love to really go there someday, and travel along the entire long coastline. That night, I learned about wine making in Chile and how easily a diversity of plants grow in different regions of the country at the class Entertaining, Chilean Style at Central Market Cooking School. The class was taught by Ruth Van Waerebeek, house chef of Concha y Toro and owner of Hostal Gastonomico and Mapuyampay Cooking School in Chile, and I attended with a media pass. As the name of the class implied, all the dishes presented were good choices for parties, and they each hinted at both traditional Chilean cooking styles and influences from afar. For instance, cuisine from both Chile and Argentina has been affected by adopted Chinese and Japanese flavors. Traditional ceviches are combined with Asian ingredients like soy sauce and sesame oil. Influence has also come from France for both cooking and wine making. Rich buttery sauces and custards combined with local, Chilean ingredients are common, and a lot of Chilean vine stock originally came from France. And, of course, the South American enthusiasm for meat is evident in Chilean food where lamb is prevalent.

Our first dish of the class was cucumber rolls with shrimp and salmon ceviche with a spicy Asian-style dipping sauce, and this was paired with Casillero del Diablo Sauvignon Blanc. Van Waerebeek suggested briefly poaching the shrimp if it’s not absolutely, perfectly fresh. For ceviche, she prefers to only marinate the raw fish for 30 minutes, so sushi-quality freshness is key. The sauce here was a spicy mix of soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, chopped red chile, and black and white sesame seeds.

Next, we saw some of that French influence in a baked scallop dish with parmesan butter and sauteed vegetables. In season, local vegetables would be used here, and for this version, carrot and bell pepper were thinly julienned and sauteed until crisp. The vegetables were placed in the bottom of ramekins and were topped with a scallop. Smaller, bay scallops are more common in Chile, and if using those, a few would be placed on top of the vegetables. The scallops were topped with a generous bit of parmesan butter and were then broiled to just cook the scallops almost through. This dish was served with a young, light Casillero del Diablo Chardonnay.

Quinoa is one of those many plants that grows so well in Chile, and the seeds are prized for nutritional content. They were used here for a vegetarian custard. The egg and milk base was blended with pureed fresh corn, cooked quinoa was added, and sauteed, finely diced zucchini, bell pepper, and leeks were added as well. The custard was cooked in individual portions in ramekins, and the airiness of the custard was given heft by the tender pearls of quinoa. This course was served with Casillero del Diablo Carmenere, and we learned that Carmenere is the flagship varietal of Chile. It’s a light enough red wine to pair well with a range of flavors.

The quinoa custard was followed by a lamb chop served with an almond, green olive, and mint salsa. The lamb was marinated in olive oil with rosemary and garlic before being grilled, and the salsa was an easy puree of toasted almonds, green olive, fresh mint, and a little white wine to thin as needed. The wine was a robust Marques de Casa Concha Cabernet Sauvignon, and it was my favorite wine of the evening.

Dessert wasn’t a Chilean dish at all, but rather, it was a Catalonian idea for ending a meal imported from Spain. An aged Manchego cheese was served with pieces of rosemary bread and black cherry preserves, and this was paired with Casillero del Diablo Reserva Privada. Although this idea came from Spain, sheep’s milk cheeses similar to Manchego are common in Chile but are difficult to find outside the country.

Until I get a chance to trek the length of Chile, I can at least daydream about it and enjoy these dishes and wines at home. The seafood, the quinoa, and the wine will be waiting when I finally get there.


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Beet and Quinoa Salad with Pecan-Crusted Goat Cheese

A couple of days ago, I talked about the beginning of wild salmon season, and today, I'm talking about the end of beet season. I think I've received the last beets I'll see from my CSA until fall, and I realize I do mention beets frequently here, but I really enjoy the flavor, the colors, and how nutritious they are. We're lucky to have a nice, long, growing season for beets since they only disappear during our extreme summer heat but grow well for the rest of the year. And, with locally grown beets, the green tops are always fresh and ready to be used along with the roots. When I saw this quinoa and beet dish on the NY Times site a couple of weeks ago, I knew it would be a great way to use my last spring beets. It was called a pilaf, but I served it more like a salad. Either way, it's very easy to prepare, and I added one little, extra step to gussy up the goat cheese. I rolled it in chopped pecans before slicing it into rounds and was happy to have the added flavor from the nuts. This was great served at room temperature as well as chilled from the refrigerator.

The beets were first roasted, and the roasting time depends on the size of the beets. Mine were kind of large, so after drizzling on olive oil and seasoning the cleaned beets with salt and pepper, I wrapped them in parchment and then foil and let them roast for about an hour and fifteen minutes at 400 degrees F. Once they're cool enough to handle, the skins slip off easily, and you can use a paper towel to remove them. Then, the beets are ready to be chopped, and they can be refrigerated until you're ready to complete the dish. The recipe suggested blanching the beet greens and draining them before sauteeing, but I skipped the blanching step. They cook quickly, so I just added them to the saute pan after garlic had been briefly cooked in olive oil. Crushed caraway seeds were supposed to have been added as well, but I skipped them. Meanwhile, white quinoa was cooked in a saucepan. Once the beet greens were wilted, the quinoa and chopped beets were added. I served the quinoa mixture with rounds of pecan-crusted goat cheese on top.

The white quinoa took on the pink color of the beets as they were stirred together in the saute pan, and the mild, nutty flavor went well with the earthy beets and greens. It was great to get to use both the tops and the roots of the beets in one dish. I'll be making this again as soon as our local beets reappear.

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Stuffed Poblanos in Chipotle Sauce

Stuffed peppers have a reputation for being a little on the heavy side as food goes. There are meat and rice filled options. Sometimes polanos are stuffed and then breaded and fried. Other times, they're stuffed and covered with cheese and then broiled until gooey. Those options have their desirable qualities, but you rarely hear about a light and healthy kind of stuffed pepper. I've found one, though, that's definitely worth mentioning. It was a couple of weeks ago when I couldn't decide whether to make these stuffed poblanos or a spring barley risotto, and happily, I eventually made them both. This is also from the book Power Foods, and I've been enjoying everything I've tried from it. I'm finding that all the dishes I've tried from that book have a light and healthy feel to them but are still very satisfying. The filling for these poblanos is a mix of quinoa, sauteed mushrooms, black beans, and corn. They're topped with a little goat cheese and set into a smoky sauce of pureed chipotles, garlic, and cilantro. That sauce with some spiciness and the flavor of the roasted poblanos themselves brought some spunk to the quinoa filling, and there was just enough rich tanginess from the goat cheese on top.

I went my own way with the roasting of the poblanos. In the book, you are instructed to roast them on a baking sheet in the oven, but I always roast them right over the gas flame on top of the stove unless I roast them on the grill. I use tongs to turn them as they roast and char. Then, let them cool until you can touch them, then peel off the char, and cut down one side so you can remove the seeds. The poblanos can be roasted in advance if you'd like to get a head start. Next, the quick sauce was made by pureeing canned chipotles chiles, garlic, some salt, and water in a blender. To start the filling, quinoa was simmered while mushrooms were sauteed. Once cooked through, black beans and thawed, frozen corn were added to the mushrooms. Some of the goat cheese was stirred into the mushroom mixture with the cooked quinoa. That was spooned into the four roasted poblanos. The sauce was poured into a baking dish, the poblanos were set on the sauce, the remaining goat cheese was sprinkled on top of the poblanos, and the dish baked for about 20 minutes.

A heavy filling, crispy, fried coating, and thick, gooey, melted cheese layer were not needed here. Instead, flavors of chiles mingled with the quinoa, mushrooms, beans, and corn. There was added interest from the bits of goat cheese on top that browned as the poblanos baked. The lightness of the dish was nothing like what a stuffed pepper usually is, and that made it even better.

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Quinoa Salad with Dried Iranian Lime

It was last June when I first learned about dried limes. There was a story in the NY Times about their use in cuisine from Iran and Iraq, exactly how they’re used both whole and ground, and their unique, complex flavor of citrus with a slight funky edge. I immediately called Phoenicia, our nearby Middle Eastern market, learned they did have dried limes for sale, and ran straight there to get them. Dried limes are just that, whole, dehydrated, sun-dried limes. You should wash them before using them. Then, you can either pierce them and drop them whole into soups or beans as they cook, or you can chop them and then grind them in a spice grinder or coffee mill. If you grind the chopped pieces, you should shake the ground lime through a sieve to remove any large, hard bits. I tried two of the recipes from the NY Times article, the lentil salad and the broiled shrimp, but I never got around to mentioning them here. I recall that for the lentil dish, the dried limes were pierced and placed in the pot with the lentils while they cooked. The flavor they imparted was very subtle, and if I hadn’t known I’d used the dried limes I don’t think I would have picked out their flavor in the dish. For the shrimp, a paste was made with ground dried lime, other spices, and olive oil, and that paste was used as a rub on the shrimp. In that dish, the flavor from the limes was present, interesting, and enjoyable. I intended to try that again and grill the shrimp rather than broil it, but I just never got to it. All of this explains why I was so eager to try this quinoa salad from the book Plenty. I already had dried limes in my pantry, and I couldn’t wait to use them again.

There are a several great-looking mixed grain salads in that book. Here, quinoa, wild rice, and basmati rice were mixed with roasted chunks of sweet potato, herbs, sliced green onions, and feta. I had just received sweet potatoes and green onions from Farmhouse Delivery, so I was set. I bought Canadian Lake wild rice, which is a long variety that requires about 55 minutes to cook. I cooked it in a large saucepan with plenty of extra water, and added the basmati rice after about 15 minutes of simmering. When the two grains were cooked, they were drained and placed in a large mixing bowl. Meanwhile, sweet potatoes were peeled, chopped into cubes and roasted with a coating of olive oil and a sprinkling of salt and pepper. For the last 10 minutes of roasting time, the quinoa was cooked in simmering water, and then it was drained and added to the rices. Dried limes were chopped, ground, and sieved, and two tablespoons were used in the salad. Last, olive oil was heated in a small skillet, sliced garlic was added followed by chopped sage and oregano, and I was lucky to still have some sage and oregano in my herb garden after our cold spell. The oil with garlic and herbs was poured over the grain mixture followed by the roasted sweet potatoes and the oil left on the baking sheet, the sliced green onion, a little lemon juice, some shredded mint, the ground dried lime, and cubes of feta. Everything was carefully mixed so as not to break up the sweet potato or feta.

This was such a pleasant mix of nutty, chewy grains, and the garlic, onion, and herbs hit all the right flavor notes. The dried lime with its concentrated citrus was well-matched with the sweet potato and feta. You could easily add more of one thing or less of another here, but I wouldn’t change a thing next time I make this. It was a meal of a salad, and since it makes a nice, large quantity, it will be several meals. I’m already looking forward to the next one for lunch.

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Black Bean and Quinoa Salad

In the December Food and Wine, there was a story about Boston chef Ken Oringer and the tailgate party he hosts on the day he cuts down his Christmas tree. The picnic menu for this party was a really good one, and I have to keep the pages I cut from the magazine because I’d like to recreate the entire thing some day. It included cubano sandwiches, this black bean and quinoa salad, mulled cider, an avocado, grapefruit, and hearts of palm salad, artichoke and spinach dip with spiced pita chips, and caramel pecan bars. Reading that list again just now made me a little hungry. Last week, I wasn’t ready to throw a picnic party and prepare all of that, but I had a plan for jibaritos and thought this salad would fit well with them. As usual, when I cook dried beans, I cook a lot of them at once. I planned ahead, cooked a lot of beans, set aside the amount needed for this recipe, and stored the extra beans in the freezer for future uses. With the black beans already cooked, prepping the salad was quick and easy.

First, the quinoa was cooked and then spread on a sheet pan to cool quickly. A dressing was made by whisking together sherry vinegar, soy sauce, lime juice, and a chopped chipotle chile, and then olive oil was incorporated. Sliced scallions, minced red onion, finely diced yellow pepper, and chopped cilantro were combined with the cooked and cooled black beans and quinoa. The dressing was poured over the mixture, it was tossed to combine, seasoning was checked, and that was it.

The salad is so full of flavor and varied textures you won’t even pause to think about how healthy it is. The chipotle added a little spiciness, and you could increase that and taste as you go while making the dressing. Obviously, you could change the vegetables in the salad, but the ones suggested were a nice mix of colors with the yellow pepper against the black beans and flecks of green cilantro and scallions here and there. This makes a very large quantity of salad, but it stores well in the refrigerator. It’s also great on a bed of arugula and topped with some crumbled feta, so I didn’t mind having a big bowl of it in the refrigerator for a few days.




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Sourdough Starter and Bread Adventure: 6 George’s Seeded Sour

It had been a month since I’d last used my starter. Is it weird that I’ve gotten to where I worry about it and whether or not it might be getting bored? To make sure it would have a lot of fun for this round of baking, I chose a bread that relies entirely on the starter for its leavening. No additional commercial yeast was added as it sometimes is with the other breads I’ve been baking. Once again from the Breads from the La Brea Bakery book, this seeded sourdough was named for the head baker who developed it. It’s a multigrain bread but isn’t dense or heavy, and it’s crusted on top with a combination of seeds. The use of quinoa, millet, and amaranth is what made me want to try this. It sounded like a delicious and healthy mix of grains, but I began this recipe, as I do all bread recipes, with uncertainty, fear, and hope.

This was a two-day preparation. At the end of day one, the dough was to rest for seven hours, so I planned for that refrigerated resting time to begin just before I went to bed. First, a sponge was made with starter, milk, whole-wheat flour, rye flour, and white bread flour. That was left for three hours. The sponge was then combined with quinoa, millet, amaranth, poppy seeds, and more bread flour. All of that was mixed in a stand mixer with a dough hook, and then sea salt was incorporated. The dough was a little sticky, as it was supposed to be, but it was easy enough to knead it on a floured surface. After kneading for a few minutes, it began its seven hour chilled resting time.

The next morning, the dough was removed from the refrigerator and allowed to come to room temperature. It was then cut into two pieces which were left to rest for 15 minutes. A combination of amaranth, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, anise seeds, and fennel seeds was spread on a baking sheet. Each piece of dough was to have been formed into a football shape. Yes, I know what a football ball is. However, I failed a little at this shaping step, and I’m going to blame this on the fact that I have no interest in the sport of football. Maybe in my mind, the shape of a football is a little longer and thinner than regulation size. The shaped or mis-shaped loaves were then spritzed with water from a water bottle and rolled in the seeds, and I had no problem with with that step. The seeded loaves then sat, top-side down, on a baking sheet topped with a floured cloth with some of the cloth pinched up between the loaves to keep them separated. They were covered with another floured cloth, and then all was slid into a plastic trash bag where they proofed for three to four hours. I really hoped this would be the only time these loaves would see the inside of a trash bag.

The usual oven technique was used again here. It was heated to 500 degrees F, spritzed with water, the loaves were removed from their trash bag shroud and slashed on top, they were slid onto a baking stone with a peel, and the oven was turned down to 450 degrees F. In the next five minutes, the oven was water spritzed two more times, and then the loaves were left to bake for 20 minutes. They had become well-browned on the bottom in that time, so I moved them up to a middle rack for the final 10 minutes of baking.

My finished bread was nicely burnished and well-crusted. As I mentioned, they were longer than a football and therefore not as tall as they might have been. I fretted for a couple of hours, with a complete lack of confidence that the inside would seem right, while they cooled. Then, finally, I picked up my bread knife and with a here goes nothing, I cut into a loaf and was pleasantly surprised. Just as the bread had been described in the recipe’s intro, it was lighter than most multigrains. The inside was moist with a fairly open texture. I tasted a slice and understood right away why Silverton raved about using this bread for a turkey sandwich. The flavor of the grains and the sourdough with the crunchy crust would make this a fantastic sandwich bread. I was so proud of my starter and what it had achieved, and I’m curious what wonders it will produce next.

I’m submitting this to Yeastspotting where you’ll find some seriously well-made bread.

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Quinoa, Apricot, and Nut Clusters

I don’t think I can refer to these as cookies, and they’re not quite granola bars either. They’re healthy snack-type cookie bars, and they came from Living’s October 2004 issue. Several years later, I did at least make them in the month of October. The nuts and fruit could easily be changed out to suit any craving, but I went with the suggested dried apricots, pistachios, and sesame seeds. One change I did make was using all honey rather than a combination of honey and refined sugar.

The quinoa is the main character here with its own nutty quality, but it needs to be completely dried in the oven to work well. The instructions state that you should spread the quinoa on a baking sheet and bake for 30-35 minutes fluffing with a fork occasionally. It sticks a little at first but less so as it continues to bake. To speed up the next steps, the oats and sesame seeds can be browned at the same time the quinoa is in the oven. Once all the ingredients are combined, the resulting mixture is a little runny and messy, but it comes together and crisps up during baking if baked as directed.

I formed some clusters into oblong, oval bars, and any shape would work. However, one thing that doesn’t work is baking the mixture in a small pan. I had thought I could bake some in an eight inch square pan and then cut tidy bars after it cooled, but no. The pan-baked version didn’t become crisp throughout, so forming individual clusters on a baking sheet is the way to go. The ones that were made properly were crunchy and delicious. It’s recommended that the cooled clusters be stored loosely covered with foil. They do lose some crunch if stored air-tight, but re-warming them in the oven would revive their crispness. It occurred to me that the addition of some cinnamon or nutmeg would be nice, and next time I’ll definitely give that a try. As they were, they made a guiltless, nutritious, and tasty snack.

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