Creamy Quinoa & Chia Porridge

Autumn is here, and it's getting too cool for cold breakfasts of raw chia pudding and green smoothies. The other morning I was trying to think of something warm and comforting for breakfast while browsing through food photos on Instagram (as you do), and I noticed a photo of banana chia quinoa porridge that was posted by Jessica Cox (a nutritionist with lots of great recipes), and I was inspired! I couldn't find a recipe, so I just made up my own. (Thanks for the idea, Jessica!)

I love quinoa, but whenever I've tried to make quinoa flakes into porridge it's usually ended up kind of sludgey, and I didn't really enjoy it. Until now. Adding chia made all the difference for me, as well as cooking it very lightly, not overcooking it. And I'm sure all the coconut cream, banana, cinnamon and nuts helped as well!

You could cook it in the Thermomix like I do, or in a pan on the stovetop if you keep the heat really low and stir until done. Or use the soak overnight method (below the recipe).

Note: The addition of mesquite powder is optional. I love to use it in my breakfast porridge as it's low GI and great for stablising blood sugar levels, plus it's high in minerals and protein. So when you combine that with chia and quinoa, you have a breakfast that keeps you from getting the blood sugar 'lows' all morning. (It's also slightly sweet, and has a caramelly flavour that goes well with the bananas and cinnamon.) Mesquite flour and chia are both traditional foods of native Americans, and it's really interesting to see these ancient 'health foods' making a comeback! My Cherokee great great grandma would be pleased to know I'm using them. :)

Quinoa & Chia Porridge

Serves 4

Weigh almonds into Thermomix bowl, and grind for 10 seconds on speed 9.
- 100g raw almonds

Add water and blend on speed 9 for 1 minute.
- 500g water

[Note: if you can't have nuts, you could use 600g of your preferred milk in place of the almond milk. Coconut milk is nice, and since it's so creamy you can reduce it to 300g milk plus 300g water.]

Add the quinoa flakes, chia seeds, honey, spices, vanilla, mesquite powder & salt, and cook at 50C for 5 minutes, reverse speed 2. (Gently blend it up for a few seconds first on speed 3 to mix together.)
- 50g quinoa flakes
- 50g chia seeds
- 2 Tbspns raw honey (or preferred sweetener)
- 2 tps ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
- 3 Tbspns mesquite powder (opt)
- a pinch of Himalayan salt

Spoon into bowls and serve topped with:
- coconut milk or yoghurt
- sliced bananas (or whatever fruit you like)
- chopped walnuts (opt)
- a drizzle of pure maple syrup
- a sprinkle of cinnamon


Overnight soak method:

Make almond milk, mix with other ingredients apart from toppings, and refrigerate overnight. Next morning, warm gently then serve topped with fruit, nuts, etc.

Chocolate No-Bake Cookies

 

 (Egg free, gluten free, dairy free, nut free options. Naturally sweetened.)

 

This is my healthier version of an old childhood favourite. I remember scraping the hot cookies off the trays with a spoon as a kid, because I couldn't wait for them to cool and set - yum! 

 

The orginal recipe contained 2 cups of sugar (eek!!), so a few years ago I made up this version using honey or rice malt syrup. My kids love them even more than cooked bikkies as they're so moist and chocolatey. I love them because they're so quick and easy. They're great for when you don't want to turn the oven on but really want cookies. :)

1. Cook in Thermomix at 100C for 15 mins, speed 2.

- 250g rice malt syrup (can use honey, but reduce amount to 150g or leave out coconut sugar)
- 50g coconut sugar (or Rapadura) optional
- 30g cacao powder (or cocoa)
- 120g coconut oil (or butter)
- 130g rice/almond milk (or milk of choice)

2. Add and mix on reverse speed 3 until combined.

- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 220-250g quinoa flakes (or rolled oats)

* If using quinoa flakes, leave in bowl for 10 minutes so flakes soften. If using oats, continue with recipe as soon as mixed. *

3. Drop spoonfuls of mixture onto lined trays and place in freezer to set.

 

Enjoy :)

I like to keep these in the fridge or freezer as they taste best cold and chewy!

 

To make these by hand:

Heat first 5 ingredients in a large saucepan on the stovetop, stirring. Allow to rapid boil for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Mix in remaining ingredients and drop by spoonfuls onto trays.

Spicy BBQ Chicken All-in-One Dinner

 



One of the things I love most about my Thermomix is that it makes super-delicious and super-easy 'all-in-one' meals! (You may have noticed that. There's quite a few on my blog.)

Who doesn't love a meal that's quick to put together, doesn't use up every pot in the cupboard, saves electricity by cooking everything at once, and tastes delicious to boot? Not to mention the fact that steamed veges are much better for you than veges boiled to death in a pot of water. So I tend to make a lot of these 'all-in-one' meals, just varying the layers to use whatever I have. When the cooking time is finished, if there's liquid in the bowl, I often use it to make a sauce to pour over the top so nothing is wasted.

Here's one I made up the other night - chicken thighs cooking in a spicy BBQ sauce, with veges and either rice, potatoes or quinoa cooking in the basket in the bowl, and a sauce made with the juices that are left in the bowl at the end. Very simple, a great mid-week meal. It's a little bit spicy, so adjust the chilli powder to taste!

Spicy BBQ Chicken All-in-One Dinner

1. Mince garlic in Thermomix bowl on speed 7 for 3 seconds:

- 2 cloves garlic

 

2. Add remaining sauce ingredients and mix on speed 5 for 10 seconds:

- 80g tomato sauce

- 60g apple cider vinegar

- 30g butter, ghee or oil

- 2 tsp seeded or Dijon mustard

- 2 Tbspns Tamari

- 2 Tbspns lemon juice

- 20g Rapadura or 15g honey

- 1 tsp herb salt

- 1-2 tsp chilli powder

- 2 tsp smoked paprika

 

3. Pour over chicken thighs in a bowl and marinate for half an hour. (If you don't have time you can just go ahead and cook them.)

- 1 kg chicken thighs, fat removed

 

4. Pour water into bowl, insert rice basket, and weigh in rice/quinoa/potatoes.

- 900g water

- 400g basmati rice

    OR

  350g quinoa (rinsed)

    OR   

  fill basket with thickly sliced potatoes (skin on)

5. Put lid on bowl, with Varoma on top. Add veges to lower Varoma tray, and place the upper Varoma tray on top. Line with wet baking paper, and arrange chicken on paper, drizzling with some of the sauce. Set remaining sauce aside for later.
- sliced veges: carrots, broccoli, green beans, red capsicum... or even just frozen peas and corn if you're in a hurry
- chicken in BBQ sauce

 

6. Start cooking for 20 minutes at Varoma temp, speed 4 for rice or quinoa, or 25 minutes for potatoes. When cooking time is finished, remove Varoma (set it on it's lid to catch drips) and remove rice/quinoa/potatoes and cooked veges to a Thermoserver or covered serving dish to keep warm. The chicken will need a little more time to cook.

7. If you cooked rice/quinoa, there won't be much 'juice' left in the bowl. Add some more liquid by carefully draining the juices off the chicken into the bowl. Also, add the reserved BBQ sauce to the bowl (from marinating the chicken). Replace lid and Varoma (bottom tray will be empty), and cook for another 10 minutes at Varoma temperature, speed 2. Chicken should be done - cut a thigh in half to check.

    If you cooked potatoes in the basket, there'll be lots of water left in the bowl. Tip all but about 2 inches of water out. Add juices from chicken and reserved sauce, replace chicken in Varoma tray, and cook as above.

 

The juices left in the bowl - BBQ marinade is added and it is thickened to make sauce.

8. Remove cooked chicken to another Thermoserver or covered serving dish. Make the sauce by adding cornstarch/arrowroot mixture to bowl and cooking at 100C for 4 minutes, speed 4.
- 2 Tbspns cornstarch or arrowroot, mixed with 2 Tbspns water in a cup

 

 

9. Serve chicken, veges and rice/quinoa/potatoes together, drizzled with the sauce.

 

As you can see, it's very handy to have more than one *Thermoserver!

They'll keep your food hot for up to three hours, so you can make dinner ahead of time and keep it in the servers until everyone's ready to eat. No more cold dinners.

 

* A Thermoserver is a double insulated stainless steel serving dish valued at $60, available only through Thermomix home demonstrations in Australia. 

 

* Special Deal for January 2013 *

You can receive TWO Thermoservers for free by purchasing a Thermomix in January,

and holding your home demonstration before the end of February!

Visit the Thermomix website for more details.

Quinoa Salad, Thermomix Style!

Summer. The weather's so hot, the last thing you feel like doing is slaving over a hot stove, cooking. Green smoothie for dinner? Hmmm, don't know about the guys in your house, but mine wouldn't be too happy. What to do? Quinoa Salad! It doesn't take a lot of effort (especially with the Thermomix), you can pretty much chuck in whatever's in the fridge (bonus: it's different every time!), and everyone likes it. (Well, except for the pine nuts in this one - my eleven year old picked those out... Oh well. Can't win 'em all.)

This salad ticks all the boxes - quick, easy, healthy, yummy and there's lots of variations possible. Sometimes I add meat - chicken, tuna, or salmon - sometimes I leave the meat out. Eggs are optional too, but are an easy filler. You can try different dressings - for my quickest of quick versions, I just drizzle over some balsamic vinegar and my specially good extra virgin olive oil that I save for salads, plus a little herb salt. Other times I use my homemade mayonnaise, which is made with seeded mustard, honey, garlic and herbs. Beck from Thermosisters made a version with a dressing consisting of flaxseed oil, garlic, seeded mustard and honey. Yum!

Just a note on quinoa (pronounced 'KEEN-wa'): I've had some people comment that they don't like quinoa as it has a bitter taste. If the quinoa you are using is bitter, it needs to be well soaked and/or rinsed to remove the natural saponins coating the seeds. Quinoa grown in Australia is usually sold un-rinsed, whereas quinoa from Peru or Bolivia is usually pre-rinsed and ready to use. If you have Australian quinoa, follow these guidelines before cooking:
     - Rinse quinoa in a fine strainer for 1 to 2 minutes under running water, the evening before using it, then soak in a bowl of water overnight.
     - In the morning (or before cooking), rinse again under running water for another minute.
If you follow these steps, you shouldn't have a problem with bitterness.

So here's my 'chicken & pumpkin' version of quinoa salad - see what other variations you can come up with.

1. Weigh dry quinoa into a bowl and cover with water, then set aside to soak for 7-12 hours. Drain and rinse in a fine seive under running water. Or, if you're in a hurry, pour boiling water over quinoa and let sit for 10 mins or more, then rinse.
- 350g quinoa, weighed when dry
- 500g water

2. Weigh water into Thermomix bowl, place quinoa in steamer basket and insert into bowl. Place eggs on top of quinoa in steamer basket.
- 800g water
- 4 eggs, preferably organic free range, well rinsed

3. Place the lid on the bowl, with Varoma on top, and place chicken and pumpkin in Varoma dish, leaving some spaces for the steam to get through. Cook for 20 minutes, Varoma temperature, speed 4. (Check chicken and pumpkin in last five minutes of cooking time and break apart with the spatula so it cooks through evenly.)
- 3 chicken thighs, cubed
- 250g pumpkin, sliced thinly (about 5 mm)

4. When the quinoa, chicken & veges are cooked, remove eggs from quinoa (scraping off quinoa from shells) and peel and quarter eggs.

5. Prepare salad ingredients in a very large salad bowl. I like to use:
- a bag of mixed salad greens or baby spinach
- sun-dried tomato strips
- kalamata olives
- thinly sliced shallots or red onion
- boiled eggs, quartered
- cubed sheep or goat milk feta (optional)

6. Add quinoa, chicken and pumpkin to salad ingredients. You can wait until they're cool if you like, or use straight away for a warm salad.

7. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar and a good quality cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil, or whatever dressing you prefer.

8. Sprinkle with toasted seeds and serve. I like a mixture of sesame seeds, sunflower seeds and pine nuts, toasted in a dry skillet until they're starting to pop, then drizzled with tamari and toasted a little longer. They give a lovely 'crunch' to salads.

Another variation we love is smoked salmon, avocado, olive, sun-dried tomato or cherry tomatoes and baby spinach. What variations do you like to make?

Share your versions in the comments below!

Quick Egg Curry with Quinoa... plus how to make Coconut Milk

 

 

This is one of those 'last-minute-slap-dash' recipes that are pretty much my trademark. Sometimes those are the best kind of recipes. Here's how it happened...

 

One dark morning, I stumbled out of bed at 5.30am to try and find something my hubby could take to work for lunch, and there was just nothing. No bread, no leftovers, just a few basic ingredients and some eggs. My fuzzy brain did a quick search and came up with 'egg curry'. I dug through the cupboard looking for the curry powder, but it was all gone. Typical. That'll teach me to menu plan more carefully. Okay, no big deal - I had the basic ingredients for a curry powder and I had a Thermomix! So I revved up Thermie and quickly ground some spices to make some homemade curry powder, using the recipe in the Indian cookbook. (No, the kids didn't wake up - they're used to me Thermomixing at all sorts of odd hours!) Then I made a quick egg curry. Hubby was out the door and on his way by 6am, and I stumbled back to bed.

 

So a month or so ago I shared this simple recipe on Facebook, and was surprised to find that lots of people loved it! I hadn't blogged it because it didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary... but maybe that's why people like it. It's simple, tasty, quick, and cheap. And really, that's what most of us want for everyday meals - right? Now and then a fancy meal, but mostly it's 'get it on the table and get 'em fed with as little fuss as possible'!

 

Have a look at the variations at the end if you'd rather chicken instead of eggs, or more veges, or a vegetarian version.

 

Quick Egg Curry with Quinoa

 

1. Curry powder: if you want to make your own, do that first. You can of course just use bought curry powder, but homemade has lots of flavour, and no anti-caking agents. The recipe I use is the Madras Curry Powder from the Thermomix Indian Cookbook but I leave the salt out. Or I just use the Garam Masala recipe from the Thermomix Everyday Cookbook - that's nice too, and very simple.

 
2. Coconut milk: if you're not in a hurry and you really want to go back to basics, you can make your coconut milk first. This saves money, and it's very simple. Here's how.

- Grind up 300g dried, shredded coconut for 10 seconds on speed 8 (in the Thermomix). You can use fresh coconut instead if you have it.

- Add 1200g water and cook for 15-20 minutes at 100C, speed 4 - until the temperature reaches 100C. (If using fresh coconut, only add 900g water.)

Blend on speed 8 for 30 seconds; strain through a nut milk bag. (I use tongs to squeeze the milk out because it's hot!)

 

 

[Optional: Return the pulp to the Thermomix bowl, add another 1200g of water, and repeat. You'll have a thick milk and a thinner milk. You can either mix them, or just use the thinner milk in smoothies/baking. ]

If you like, you can also dehydrate the pulp in a dehydrator for 6 hours on low temp, then grind it for 2 minutes speed 9 to make coconut flour! But I'm getting off the track here, back to the egg curry...

 

3. Quinoa & eggs: The next step is to cook the quinoa and eggs.

 

Weigh water into bowl:

- 900g water

 

Add rice basket and weigh dry quinoa into basket. (Don't stress if a little bit falls through the holes - not much will.)

- 300g white quinoa

 

[Note: Most of the quinoa I've bought is pre-rinsed, it doesn't have a bitter taste. If it's not pre-rinsed (or you're not sure), rinse well in a fine strainer under running water for a couple of minutes, rubbing grains through your fingers to remove saponins. (That's the natural bug-deterrant on quinoa that makes it taste bitter.) Soaking quinoa: If you're thinking ahead, you can weigh the dry quinoa into a Thermoserver or other dish, cover with water and a tsp of apple cider vinegar, and leave to soak over night or for a few hours.]

Wash eggs well and place on top of quinoa, in the rice basket:

- 6 eggs, organic free range

 

[OR place the eggs in the Varoma if you don't like the idea of them being in with the quinoa. But it's perfectly fine, as long as the eggs are clean. Some people grind up eggs shells and add them to food for a calcium supplement - egg shells are non-toxic!]

 

Cook for 20 minutes at Varoma temperature, speed 4.

 

 

Remove eggs from quinoa with tongs (scrape off the quinoa) and set aside. Tip quinoa into Thermoserver or covered serving dish to stay warm. Rinse & dry bowl.

 

4. Curry sauce: (don't worry, this is quick!)

Chop onion, garlic and coriander in Thermomix bowl on speed 5 for 3 seconds.

- 1 brown onion, halved

- 2-3 cloves garlic

- a handful fresh coriander (or parsley)

 

Add olive oil or ghee and cook at 100C, 2 minutes, speed 1:

- 30g olive oil or ghee

 

Add curry powder and lemon juice. Cook 100C, 2 minutes, speed 1:

- 2-4 Tbspns curry powder (depending how hot you like it)

- 1 Tbspn lemon

 

Add coconut milk/cream, vege stock paste and frozen peas, and cook 5 minutes, 100C, reverse speed 1:

- 400g coconut cream or milk

- 1 Tbspn vege stock paste

- 150g peas (frozen is fine)

 

Meanwhile, peel eggs and cut into quarters. Arrange on top of quinoa. When curry sauce is ready, pour over the quinoa and eggs, and serve.

 

*     *     *     *     *

Variations: You could easily jazz this up a bit by steaming chicken breast pieces in the Varoma on top while the quinoa is cooking, as well as a bunch of sliced veges. Or you could add in any leftover veges from the night before instead of the frozen peas - I tend to do things like that. If you can't have eggs, just leave them out and use chicken or veges instead. Maybe add a tin of chickpeas with the veges. Play around with it and see what you come up with. Hope you like it! :)

 

*     *     *     *     *

Fajita Chicken & Salad Pizza on Quinoa & Chia Seed Flatbread

* This recipe includes support for Paprika * 

This morning when I got up I decided that the last thing I wanted for breakfast was porridge or granola or eggs - I was starving! I wanted PIZZA!!

I looked in the fridge and spied a lonely chicken breast and some baby spinach, and decided on a quick chicken and salad pizza... I know, that doesn't sound much like breakfast food, but I tend to have all sorts of odd things for breakfast. I prefer a savoury breakfast to a sweet one. (Although I will make an exception for chocolate.)

The base of this pizza is made from quinoa and chia seeds, so it's a lot higher in protein than a traditional base. Protein is great in the morning as it fills you up for longer and gives you energy, whereas carbs will make you feel stodgy and sleepy. So skip the cereal and toast and go for pizza! ;-) That is, healthy pizza - not a stodgy, carby pizza. This one is gluten free, dairy free, egg free... even grain free if you don't count quinoa as a grain! (Which I don't, since it's really a seed.)

You can make the base soft or crunchy, depending how you like it. I use this pizza base recipe for flatbread too - I make mini ones for the kids lunches quite often. Spread them thin and cook them until just cooked, and they'll wrap around a filling. Or cook them longer so they're crisp like crackers and serve them with dips.

Snack size quinoa & chia seed flatbread with avocado & fire-roasted capsicum

Try some different toppings, like smoked salmon, sheep's fetta (if you can have it), olives, avocado, or fire-roasted capsicum. Or for a more 'breakfast-y' breakfast, top with scrambled eggs, sun-dried tomatoes and spinach, or a poached egg! Yum.


Quinoa & Chia Seed Flatbread (gluten free, dairy free)

Makes 2 large pizza size flatbreads, or a few mini ones

1. Toast the quinoa in a dry frying pan by stirring over medium heat for a few minutes. Or toast in Thermomix at 100C for 10 mins, speed 1, with MC off. [Optional - to get rid of saponins on outside of quinoa as it may otherwise taste bitter.]
- 150g white quinoa

2. Grind quinoa, chia and salt in Thermomix bowl for 1 minute, speed 9:
- toasted quinoa
- 2 Tbspns chia seeds
- 1/2 tsp sea salt

3. Add water and mix on speed 5 for 10 seconds:
- 180g water

Note: For a soaked version of the flatbread, skip the toasting of the quinoa. Instead, cover quinoa in water and leave overnight, strain in the morning and add quinoa to the Thermomix bowl with the chia, salt and water. Blend on speed 9 for 2 minutes, adding a little more water if needed, and scraping down now and then with the spatula.

4. Drizzle pizza trays with some extra virgin olive oil (use baking paper if needed), and divide dough between trays. (The dough will be more like a sticky batter.) Drizzle the dough with some more oil.

Using your fingertips, pat the dough out evenly into a thin circle, about 3mm thick. I find it's easier to use my fingers than a spatula, as the dough is very sticky. The oil will stop it sticking to your hands.

There should be oil all around the edge of the dough, and a thin sheen over the top. This will make it crispy. If you want it soft, there's no need to use much oil.

5. Bake at 200C for 20-30 minutes, depending how crispy you like it.

(You'll notice mine's quite brown after 30 minutes - don't cook it this long if you want it soft like the picture of the snack size flatbread.)


Fajita Chicken & Salad Topping (gluten free, dairy free)

While the pizza bases are cooking, make the toppings.

1. Chop garlic on speed 7 for 3 seconds

- 2 garlic cloves

2. Add the remaining ingredients except the chicken and mix on speed 5 for 5 seconds

- 20g extra virgin olive oil
- 10g tamari or gf soy sauce
- 1 Tbspn honey
- juice of 1/2 a lime
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/8 tsp onion powder
- dash of mesquite smoke seasoning (optional)

3. Add chicken and cook for 5 minutes, Varoma temperature, reverse speed soft, with MC off

- 1 chicken breast, thinly sliced

   (There will be a bit of 'juice' left after cooking the chicken - you can just lift the chicken out with a fork or slotted spoon. I actually drizzled the juice over the top of the pizza because it was too yummy to waste!)
 

4. When flatbread is cooked, remove from oven and top with
- baby spinach
- chopped tomato
- thinly sliced Spanish onion
- fajita chicken
- dairy free sour cream (optional - I didn't have any and was in a hurry to eat!)

Warning: this can be messy to eat, but it's worth it. :)

Sesame Salmon & Vegetables with Creamy Tikka Sauce

 

 

The other night I was so tired, and really didn't feel like cooking dinner. I was very tempted to just give in and buy fish and chips. But I pulled myself together and dug a couple of salmon steaks out of the freezer, popped them into some salty water to thaw out, and began chopping veges. In thirty minutes (yes, 30 minutes!) we sat down to this absolutely delicious meal. Thank goodness for my Thermomix. There's hardly ever an excuse to have takeaway when you have a Thermomix... you can have a restaurant quality meal in half an hour.

I thought I'd better write the recipe down so I remember what I did for next time. So here it is - try it next time you don't feel like cooking!

 

[Note: I had leftover cooked quinoa in the fridge, so I served the salmon and veges on that. You could even leave that out and just serve it on salad greens; or you could cook the quinoa in the rice basket while the sauce, fish and veges are cooking. An all-in-one meal!]

1. Cube salmon, drizzle with tamari and sesame oil, set aside.

- 2 or 3 salmon steaks, cut into 2 cm cubes

- tamari & sesame oil, to taste

2. Chop up some veges and place in Varoma dish:

- carrots, sliced

- broccoli, in small florets

- orange sweet potato, cubed (optional)

3. Place cubed salmon on top of veges. Drizzle a little more sesame oil and tamari over the veges if you like. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

4. Pour into bowl of Thermomix:

- 400g coconut cream or milk

- 400g water

5. If you're cooking quinoa at the same time, weigh the dry quinoa into the rice basket, rinse well, then place in bowl:

- 350g quinoa

   Place lid on bowl, set Varoma dish on top, and cook at Varoma temp for 20 minutes, speed 4.

6. Check that everything's cooked, set Varoma dish onto its' lid (to catch drips), and tip quinoa into a serving dish. Add the following to the juices left in the bowl and whiz up on speed 9 for a minute:

- a handful or two of raw cashews (depending how thick you want the sauce)

- 2 cloves of garlic

- about a cm of raw ginger (optional)

- a teaspoon of vege stock paste

- a large tablespoon (or two) of tikka paste (homemade, from the *Thermomix Indian cookbook.)

- a teaspoon of Rapadura (or honey)

- a dash of tamari

*This is the best tikka paste EVER - you need the Indian cookbook even if it's just for this recipe!! Oh, and also for the awesome Butter Chicken recipe. :)

7. Serve quinoa onto the plates, top with some raw baby spinach, then the salmon and veges, then the sauce.

Mexican Quinoa

 

Mexican Quinoa in a spelt tortilla

We love quinoa, and I use it a lot as an alternative to rice and other grains. So when I made a Mexican meal the other day I decided to use quinoa instead of rice in the Mexican Rice. It worked beautifully!

I cook quinoa in my Thermomix in one of three ways - in the bowl with liquids, a little like a risotto (method below); in the rice basket just like you would cook rice (see my Garlic Quinoa recipe); and steaming in the varoma just like you would steam couscous, on baking paper (soaked for a few hours first).

It's best to soak quinoa before using it, as it is naturally coated with bitter tasting saponins, which are removed by soaking and rinsing. Toasting quinoa before cooking it is another way to remove the saponins - either in a dry frypan on the stove, or in the Thermomix as in the method below.

1. Weigh quinoa in to Thermomix bowl and cook without oil for 10 mins, Varoma temperature, reverse, speed 1:
- 370g quinoa
Remove from bowl and set aside.

2. Add veges to bowl and chop on speed 5, 4 seconds:
- 1 small onion, halved
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 carrot, quartered (opt.)

3. Add oil and cook for 2 mins, 100 degrees, speed 1:
- 30g extra virgin olive oil

4. Add toasted quinoa, stir for 1 minute on reverse, speed 1, until well coated in oil.

5. Add puree and stock, and cook for 25 - 30 mins at 100 degrees, reverse, speed 1, or until liquid is mostly absorbed and quinoa is tender:
- 500g tomato puree (or 100g tomato paste concentrate + 400g water)
- 750g chicken or vege stock (or water + 2 tablespoons vege stock concentrate)
- some semi-dried tomato strips

(If it's a bit soupy, that's okay - it will absorb liquids as it sits. I put it into my Thermoserver with the lid on to soak up a bit more of the liquids, then serve.)

Serve with spelt or corn tortillas and salad for a complete meal, or as a side dish with Mexican food.

 

Mexican quinoa served in a spelt tortilla with salad and toum

(a kind of garlic aoli) or dairy free sour cream.

To see a short video clip on how to make spelt tortillas, go to my YouTube page.