Archive for the ‘quinoa’ Category

Grilled Snapper with Quinoa Salad

Friday, January 21st, 2011

It has been like summer here in the Bay area this week. Actually more like summer than our cold summer was!

Inspired by the sun, I thought I’d grill. This was easy and turned out to be great!
Grilled Snapper with Quinoa Salad

First I made a vinaigrette of:
1 large shallot, minced
1 large clove of garlic, finely minced
1/4 c. champagne vinegar
1/4 c. parsley

I brushed that over my snapper fillets (I had about 1 lb of snapper). I let that sit with the vinaigrette marinade brushed on it for about 30 minutes. You can’t do it for too long because the vinegar will cure the fish and you’ll start getting ceviche!

While that was sitting, I cooked the quinoa (1 cup quinoa, 3 cups water, boil then simmer until water is gone and quinoa is tender).

Prepping for the quinoa salad
I used the rest of the vinaigrette to make the quinoa salad. I added 1/2 a cucumber chopped into 1/4″ cubes and a few chopped up basil leaves…yeah, basil isn’t in season but I bought some the other day for another dish and had some left over…moment of winter weakness!

Mix the cucumber into the vinaigrette-mixture, add some salt and pepper, and when the quinoa is cooked, mix that in too. I didn’t end up using quite all the quinoa I cooked, the ratio of quinoa to cucumber would have been off. I used probably 3/4 of it.

Brush your grill with olive oil, drizzle some olive oil on your snapper fillets and grill on med-high heat for about 5 minutes per side or until the snapper is cooked through…maybe less than 5 minutes.

Then to plate put a pile of the quinoa salad, place a snapper fillet on top and VOILA!

EAT!

I sprinkled some Kilauea Onyx salt from my newly acquired salt collection on the fish. It had a nice little crunch and also has activated charcoal in it so it went well with the grill flavor.

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Quinoa Cakes – YUM!

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009


Updated Aug 3, 2009
Cook 1/2 cup of quinoa in stock (I use chicken stock) according to package instructions.

While that’s cooking, mix vinaigrette together:
3T White wine vinegar
2 minced shallots
2 minced green onions
a handful of chopped parsley
salt and pepper

NEW ingredients!:
Sauté 1 small chopped leek and 1 small chopped fennel bulb, add 2T white wine when soft and cook off. Add to vinaigrette mixture.

Once the quinoa is tender, mix it into the vinaigrette mixture.

Refrigerate until cool.

Mix in one egg as a binder and refrigerate again for at least 20 min. or so.

Heat 1/4 inch of olive oil in a pan until quite hot.

Form quinoa mixture into patties (as thin as you can make them without them falling apart). Carefully place into hot oil and let fry until bottom is crispy and brown. Don’t try to turn them over too soon or they’ll fall apart, they need to crisp up to hold together!

Turn and do the same to the other side.

Remove from oil and place on paper towels.

Serve topped with something yummy. I topped them with an heirloom tomato and basil salad.

Enjoy!

Posted in quinoa, recipe, tomatoes | No Comments »

Quinoa with Garbanzo Beans

Thursday, April 30th, 2009

I was putting pictures of this dish on Twitter, but decided it was so good I needed to put a detailed recipe up.

Take one can garbanzo beans, rinse, and stir in two or three tablespoons lemon juice, a minced garlic clove, and some good olive oil. Set that aside and let it marinate for as long as you have time for.

Put 1 1/2 cups quinoa, 2 cups water, and some salt in a pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and let it simmer for about 20 minutes until the quinoa is tender.

Finely chop one medium leek and sauté it in a tablespoon of butter.

Once the leeks soften a bit add about 1/4 cup of stock. I used chicken, but vegetable stock would work just as well and keep this dish vegetarian. Simmer the leeks in the
stock until the stock is just about gone. Turn off the heat and add the garbanzo bean mixture, to chopped green onions, handful of chopped parsley, salt and pepper.

Stir in the cooked quinoa and season to taste.

I had two servings of the quinoa. I think it turned out great! It could’ve been its own meal, but I picked up sand dabs at the farmers market so I fried those up in butter and served those alongside the quinoa.

Posted in amateur, garbanzo, quinoa, recipe | 1 Comment »