Chicken and Plum Sumac with Herbed Feta Quinoa

Posted by CK in chicken, easy, feta cheese, plum, quinoa, recipe, sumac

0 comments

In an attempt to keep diversity in our meals (while staying healthy and keeping A happy), I picked up the free Fall issue of the LCBO magazine. Filled with recipes and wine pairing suggestions - it was definitely my cup of tea!

The recipe I'm about to introduce was definitely a winner in our home (with slight changes to adapt to my left over ingredients). It's a great recipe to welcome the Fall!

Ingredients: (Yields 4 portions)

For the Chicken and Plums
- 3 plums
- 2 chicken breasts
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tsp sumac
- salt and pepper to taste

For the Quinoa
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1 1/3 cups quinoa
- 3/4 cup cubed feta
- 1 tsp each dry parsley, oregano and rosemary
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 cup toasted pine nuts (optional)

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 400F. If you have a Roast option on your stove, now would be a great time to use it.
2. Slice each plum into 6 chunky wedges. Cut each chicken breast into chunky cubes
3. Place the plums and chicken onto a foil-lined baking sheet.
4. Brush with olive oil and sprinke with sumac. Add salt and pepper to taste.
5. Roast in the centre of the pre-heated oven for 20 minutes, until chicken is cooked through and plums are tender.
6. In the meantime, pour the chicken broth in a saucepan and bring to a boil
7. Add quinoa and reduce heat to a simmer. Let cook for 12-15 minutes.
8. Remove from heat and let sit for 8 minutes.
9. Using a fork, fluff the quinoa and add to a bowl. Drop in the feta, olive oil, herbs and pine nuts (if using).
10. Serve the chicken over the quinoa

The LCBO suggests serving it with a Chardonnay from the Niagara Region.

The original recipe served the chicken on couscous. I'll definitely be trying that option next time!

Enjoy!

- CK

Guillaume's Cooking: Chicken Quinoa Salad

Posted by CK in chicken, easy, quinoa, recipe, salad

0 comments

Before we head into this absolutely delicious recipe, I would like to introduce our new monthly guest blogger: Guillaume! While he is a work colleague of mine, he's worked in restaurants for many years. So, I'm sure he'll bring some great insight into the art of cooking! :) One of his recipes will be featured every second wednesday of every month. So make sure to check in! Welcome Guillaume!

This is one of my simple “go-to” dish I do very often as it requires very little preparation and it is enjoyed by all of my friends. If you wish to save a bit of time during the preparation, you can easily replace the tomato sauce by sun-dried tomato pesto or regular pesto. This dish incorporates many elements of a Greek salad with the feta bringing all components of the dish together with its saltiness and creaminess. The richness of the roasted pine nuts accentuates the texture of the quinoa. The use of quinoa instead of pasta keeps the dish light and fresh.

Preparation:

25 to 30 minutes

Ingredients:

Chicken

• 2 chicken breasts (diced)
• 1 Lemon or lime
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon

Quinoa

• ½ cup of quinoa
• ½ cup of stock (chicken or vegetable)
• ½ cup of water

Tomato Sauce

• 2 Tomatoes
• 1/3 cup of finely chopped white onion
• 1 finely chopped garlic clove
• 1 teaspoon of oregano
• ¼ cup of pine nuts

Vegetables

• ¼ cup of finely chopped red pepper
• ¼ cup of finely chopped green pepper
• ¼ cup of finely chopped cucumber
• ¼ cup of finely chopped red onion
• ¼ cup of feta (crumbled)

Method:

1. Place the chicken breasts in a plastic bag and add the juice from one lemon or lime. Add the cinnamon and bit of salt and pepper to taste. (the cinnamon can be replaced by oregano, thyme, cumin, or any other combination of spices you may enjoy). Vacuum seal the bag and place in the refrigerator while cutting the vegetables.
2.  In a saucepan, boil water and blanche the tomatoes for five minutes. Remove the skin and dice the tomatoes. Keep some of the liquid used to blanche the tomatoes in a cup.
3. In another saucepan, bring to boil ½ cup of water and ½ cup of stock. Incorporate the quinoa and cook on medium heat, stirring intermittently, until all the liquid has evaporated. Let the quinoa cool for 5 minutes.
4.  In the saucepan used to blanche the tomatoes, combine a bit of oil and add the finely chopped white onions and garlic. Add the diced tomatoes, the oregano, and some salt and pepper to taste. Let the onions, garlic and tomatoes reduce at medium heat stirring once in while. As the tomatoes, onions and garlic reduce, add some of the liquid used to blanche the tomatoes as needed to help build the sauce base. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes.
5. Lightly roast the pine nuts in a pan. In a blender, incorporate the tomato sauce and half of the roasted pine nuts. Blend until the texture of the sauce is nice and smooth. Let the sauce sit for 5 minutes.
6. Cook the chicken in a pan or on the barbecue. Let the chicken rest for 5 minutes before dicing it.
7.  In a bowl, combine the quinoa and tomato sauce, the rest of the pine nuts, the vegetables, the feta and the chicken.
8. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

Cold Quinoa Salad

Posted by amanda in budget, celery, cucumber, dressing, easy, healthy, quinoa, recipe, salad, tomato, vegetable, vegetarian, yellow pepper

1 comments

The finished product~

After all that holiday cheer (turkey pies, bacon based salads, and wines of all kinds), it might be time to get back to basics...like vegetables, and primary colors. This cold quinoa salad has both of those things, and is really easy to make. Though he might just be trying to placate me, M said he liked this one too. I adapted this recipe from a recipe on a box of Casbah quinoa...it didn't look like it would have enough crunch or flavor as it was originally intended, so I adjusted some quantities and ingredients to make up for that:

Fluff your quinoa to give it texture and to
make it grainy

First, cook up your quinoa (225g, or 1.5 cups):
To do this, bring 3 cups of vegetable broth to a boil.
Then add your quinoa to the broth; stir, and reduce the heat to low. Allow this to cook for between 15-20 minutes: you want the water to be completely absorbed by the quinoa.
When cooked, fluff the quinoa with a fork.
Let the quinoa cool while you prepare the rest of the salad ingredients.






In a large bowl combine:

Half a cucumber (I prefer skin intact) - thickly sliced and quartered
3-4 stalks of celery  - sliced
1 quart grape tomatoes - halved
1 yellow pepper - roughly chopped
(half a red onion would probably delicious chopped into this, though I didn't do so myself)
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley (you could up this even, especially if you love parsley, and go to 1/2 cup)









In a small bowl, whisk together:

Apple Cider Dressing

1/4 cup virgin olive oil
4 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
1.5 clove garlic, minced
2 tsp red pepper flakes
3 or 4 good cracks of black pepper



Once the quinoa has cooled, combine it with the vegetables. Drizzle the dressing over the mixture and let sit in the fridge for a few hours to let the flavours settle.

A nice touch would be to add 2 handfuls of fresh baby spinach to the mix before serving.

Delicious Quinoa and Sweet Potato Soup

Posted by CK in broccoli, easy, healthy, quinoa, recipe, sweet potato, vegetable, vegetarian

2 comments

Today we're welcoming my friend Sandra to our blog! Being an avid cook (and a great one at that), she's kindly agreed to share with us this AMAZING quinoa and sweet potato recipe!

**NOTE: The picture is one I took when I made the recipe last week - with broccoli addition (read on)**

I grew up in a traditional Lebanese household watching my mother cook. Almost every day after school I’d watch her wash, chop, season and stir meal after meal. She cooked a lot of Lebanese dishes from memory and seasoned our food based on taste. But she was curious and adventurous when it came to food, so it wasn’t uncommon for her to clip recipes out of magazines, newspapers or get recipes from friends that ended up on our kitchen table to eat.

I did not start to cook until I moved out of my parent’s home, which compared to most, was late in life. So it took a while for me to come into my own as a cook and realize I’d inherited my mom’s curiosity about food.
Teaching myself how to cook helped shape the way I approach making meals. I believe that if you can read you can cook; recipes are guides – don’t be afraid to experiment; I appreciate recipes that have a few basic ingredients that are easy to find and pack a lot of flavour; use spice instead of salt but if salt is a must, use it sparingly and try sea salt.

More recently, in an attempt to avoid gluten and not rely too heavily on rice- and corn-based products, I turned to quinoa as a side-dish substitute. Coincidently, my sister gave me a cookbook dedicated to quinoa-based dishes titled, Quinoa 365 by Patricia Green and Carolyn Hemming.

that's cheese on the bread, didn't
feel like grating it :P

I knew this super-grain was versatile but the cookbook really opened my eyes to the range of its possibilities. Quinoa will easily take on the flavour of a marinade or sauce, add texture or flavour depending on how it is used.

The recipe that I’m sharing is a soup that uses quinoa, sweet potato and coconut milk as its main ingredients. I’ve served this dish to friends and family with a broad range of eating habits and it has been a hit with all of them. It is simple to make and delicious, especially the day after it’s made and the flavours have a chance to fully blend.

I encourage readers to add their own twist once you feel you’ve mastered the original recipe. Maybe add roasted carrots, broccoli or cauliflower if you’re looking for more veggies. Bacon or a smoky sausage might add an interesting flavour and some extra protein.

Happy cooking!

Ingredients:

• 2 large sweet potatoes
• 2 Tbsp (30ml) water
• 1/2 cup each (125 ml) diced onion and quinoa
• 3 cups (750 ml) vegetable stock
• 1 cup (250 ml) coconut milk
• 1/4 tsp each (1 ml) cayenne pepper and chili powder
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) plain yogurt (optional as topping)

1. Wash, peel and cut the sweet potatoes into 2-3 inch pieces. Boil 5-6 minutes just until soft not mushy.
2. Place water and onion in a large saucepan over medium heat and cook until the onion softens, about 7 minutes.
3. Stir in the quinoa and vegetable stock and bring mixture to boil. Reduce heat to medium and cook for another 15 minutes, until the quinoa is cooked.
4. Add sweet potatoes to the saucepan. Puree the mixture either by hand blender or wait until cool and puree in 2 batches using a blender or food processor.
5. Return to low heat and stir in the coconut milk. Reheat slowly on low, adding the cayenne and chili powder.
6. Serve with yogurt (optional).

Thanks Sandra for the wonderful recipe! I actually added broccoli to mine and it was a success! :) Note that if you'd like to freeze this recipe, feel free to do so (it's just as good!!). Once you want to eat it, defrost it in the microwave (adding a dash of water) and then simmer it in a large pot until the soup is back to it's normal consistency.

Enjoy!

- CK