My little neighborhood in Queens was buried under over two feet of snow yesterday- so I rummaged through the pantry to look for something to eat, as one does in such a situation. I like quinoa, but if it’s cooked with just water it can be pretty bland and I need some flavor in my life. Allow me show you how I like to cook it.
Sauteing your peppers and onion first to get them caramelized, as well as using tomatoes with jalapenos adds a lot of flavor. Feel free to use plain tomatoes if you don’t enjoy a little heat, but you should try it, it’s really quite mild and adds a little zing! On the flip side- if you want to intensify the bite add in a 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne to the onion mix when you add the garlic. Yum!
Directions- Makes approximately 5 cups
1 tsp olive oil
1 small red onion, diced
1 small bell pepper, seeded and diced (red, yellow or orange)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 can (14.5oz) Del Monte Petite Cut Tomato with Jalapeno
vegetable/chicken stock or water
1 cup quinoa
salt pepper to taste
Optional:
3 cups fresh spinach, rinsed, trimmed and roughly chopped
cilantro
In a medium sized saucepan add the olive oil, red pepper and onion. Cover and sweat the onions for two or three minutes until the onions are translucent. Uncover and saute until veggies start to get a little bit of color, approx. five minutes. If it starts to get too dark, too quickly, turn down the heat and splash in a little stock to de-glaze the pan.
While that cooks- drain the canned tomatoes, reserving the tomato liquid in a measuring jug. Top off the liquid to 1.5 cups with stock or water.
**Add the minced garlic to your pan and saute for a minute more to cook the garlic slightly.
Add the liquid and tomatoes to the pan, bring to a simmer. Add the quinoa, lower heat, cover and cook until tender, about 15-20 minutes. Turn off the heat. At this point you can add the optional spinach (I didn’t have any this weekend, and I’m not going to tromp through three foot snowdrifts to get some 🙂 so there aren’t any in my pictures, but I normally would add it) add the spinach to the pot and put the lid back on for two or three minutes minutes to wilt the spinach. Fluff with a fork.
Salt and pepper to taste, chop up a bit of cilantro to garnish if you’re into that sort of thing- which I am. This is one of my favorite sides with a nice grilled fish or chicken, and it’s hearty enough to have as a vegetarian main on it’s own or with the addition of some grilled tofu.
**note- the reason that I don’t add the garlic at the beginning is because I like to caramelize the onion and pepper to get the fullest flavor possible and minced garlic would burn and taste bitter well before any browning would happen.
First I get my cous cous going, so that it can cool a little before I need it. I use Near East brand for a couple of reasons, It cooks up super fast and it comes in a lot of flavours. I like the herbed chicken in this recipe because it layers the chicken flavour and gives the meatballs more depth. Which is the same reason I make it with chicken stock instead of water. I prefer cous cous to bread crumbs as I think it results in a moister ball.
The chicken stocked and flavour packet came to a boil, I added in the cous cous, gave a quick stir, removed it from the heat, put the lid on and left it for 5 minutes. Now fluff and loosen the cous cous with a fork while it’s still warm and put it one side.
Next cut the bacon into lardons and brown in a pan until crisp. While they are cooking, get everything else together
Put the ground chicken into a bowl
Chop the onion half and add in to the chicken
Crush the garlic cloves and add
Sprinkle on the seasonings and squeeze in the tomato paste
On goes the bacon…
I roll them into balls, each ball is about 2 tablespoons worth of mix. A cookie dough scoop is great for this job
In a couple of teaspoons of olive oil I brown the meatballs in a pan on the stove top. Then I transfer them into a baking dish, cover them with foil and bake for about 15 minutes, to make sure they are cooked all the way through.
FlorrieMarie 