Hi Everyone, I love quinoa.  Very nutritious, versatile and tasty.  One tasty use of it, is for a "macaroni" type salad, any way you like that dish.  Quinoa is higher in protein than most "grains."  It's not really a grain though.  The tiny seeds bulk up fairly well when cooked. Be sure to rinse them well to get the soapy tasting  saponins which are anti bug compounds off the seed. Most come partially prerinsed now so just normal rinsing does the job. Just a fine strainer, the seeds are small, but the puff quite a bit when cooked.  I cooked about  1 1/3 cups I had left and it made at least 5 cups after cooking.

Besides having the 9 amino acids your body cannot make, quinoa is high in magnesium, phosphorus ( all seeds are high in that, needed to grow),  lots of B vitamins,  and other anti oxidants. It grows in poor climates, high altitudes and poor soils, may be very good after stasis.  The seed averages 16 to 23% protein.

In the monthly newspaper from Vitamin Cottage there are recipes this month. I made one today. Now some of these had animal products and I can easily make them vegan.  I will tell you how.  Ok, I actually made the next recipe with vegan substitutes and it was yummy.

Quinoa Cakes with Spinach and Goat Cheese

This recipe is quoted as coming from www.thebarefootkitchen.com

2 cups fresh spinach, roughly chopped

3 cloves fresh garlic, minced

2 cups cooked quinoa

4 ounces goat cheese  (substitute cashew nut/pepper paste, described later)

1 beaten egg  ( substitute 1/2 cup dry oatmeal, powdered in blender)

Salt and pepper.  Olive oil for frying.

Brown the garlic lightly in 1 tbs olive oil. Add the spinach, and wilt it but don't cook it.

heat quinoa gently with shredded goat cheese to melt it. Skip this if using the nut paste.

Mix the spinach into the quinoa with the nut paste if using to make it vegan.  Add either the egg or the powdered oats.  Mix in salt and pepper to taste, and make into patties and sautee in the olive oil, for a few minutes on each side.

Now to that nut paste, I often use these where cheese is called for. Just place whatever you want to make of cashews into your food processor and blend until powdered, unless you would like it a bit chunky. ADD pepper pieces, I like red and yellow peppers best in it and continue to blend until a paste forms.  (you can do this with many nuts.)  I use raw cashews with CELERY for pizza "cheese".  REALLY GOOD.

The reason for the oats, is that the egg binds the mix, and I don't use eggs any more, and powdered oats are good for this and tasty too. The result after the patties were cooked was very good.  I added a little cheyenne pepper to the mix, sounded good today and it was.

Now you could use asparagus, broccoli, chard, red cabbage maybe, minced carrots or similar ideas instead of the raw spinach in this and quinoa is flexible and would be great with all of them. Have fun. I froze the rest of my patties on a cookie sheet, and then will put them into a freezer bag to enjoy some fast food later.  These were quite good. They tasted rather bland before I cooked the patties and the flavor bloomed during cooking. The oats will firm the mix up nicely when the heat hits them. I assume you could add interesting herbs too. Flexible dish.  I am considering trying it with mushrooms and red onions, maybe with an herb, and using a nut paste based on almonds, blended with celery perhaps.

I may also try a nut paste made with almonds and baby bella mushrooms with perhaps a tiny bit of coconut milk. I need to experiment with nut pastes made with other than cashews.  I use cashews with celery for pizza, particularly raw cashews, and this is excellent with all the other stuff you like on pizza.  The cashew paste with orange or yellow pepper is very nice in pita bread with veggies too, or a wrap. Being vegan is really delightful, the foods are amazing.  I purchased some red quinoa recently but haven't tried it yet.

OK TODAY May 11, 2011, I was checking these recipes, having tossed the originals and I think I forgot to say to make into patties and brown SLOWLY in olive oil, so the oats firm up the patties, on both sides of course.  At least 5 minutes per side or more.

Make these into little finger sized patties for an appetizer for parties. I am sensing they would be good dipped into "something", not sure what yet.  Serve otherwise with a nice salad. There is enough protein in a couple of these for both the protein and the "starch" with a meal.  Or have a tofu steak with it.  Yes, you heard me. Marinate firm tofu with anything nice you like, and brown it well on both sides in a pan, or on the grill, but use some foil or something under it on the grill.  You would not believe how good smoked tofu is! Those hickory flavored barbecue sauces are nice with tofu.  Really nice.  I do NOT like tofu made with calcium salts, it is bitter to my tastes, I use only that with Nigiri, (dried sea water) or magnesium chloride. Tofu is simply cheese made with soy milk.  Acid is added, to make curds and whey, the curds are then strained, and pressed.  Lemon juice makes a very good tofu, for the acid, as does vinegar also, but I don't make it at home any more. Tofu made with lemon juice is just plain yummy, a bit like a ricotta cheese.

Quinoa Breakfast porridge

2 cups cooked quinoa

1 cup vegan milk, (soy, almond, oat, rice, hazelnut etc.)

Combine the quinoa and milk, and heat until nice and warm.

Add:  1/2 c. raisins, 1 tsp cinnamon, and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes.

Add: 1 tsp vanilla, 1/2 cup shredded coconut, 1 medium shredded apple, and 1 cup chopped almonds, salt to taste.  Enjoy with sweetener of choice.

Of course you can use other nuts, others fruits, those cranraisins, or dates might be good. Nutmeg might be good, or mace.  There is a goodly amount of protein in this dish. From the quinoa, the milk, and the nuts, and even the fruit has some protein. ALL whole foods have some protein in them. This dish will supply all your needed amino acids and then some.  Protein is NOT an issue in the vegan diet using real and whole foods.  If you spend half your calories on POP, you will have trouble getting enough.

Now a breakfast porridge of the above type can also be made with oats, cooked rice, cooked barley etc.

I make a "Kashi" type blend of grains and store in jars which I use both for pilafs, fried "rice" and breakfast cereal. I LIKE WHOLE GRAINS and always have.  I mix equal amounts generally of wheat, spelt, rye, barley, oats, rice and some millet.  Millet is GOOD in this.  So I can make the above porridge with the grain blend too. Yummy.  You who like chinese stir fry, it's good on the above mix and it's also good with barley instead of rice. REAL barley, not the pearled stuff.

Summer Quinoa Pilaf with Shrimp (of course with substitutes)

2 cups rinsed quinoa and 4 cups water or broth (there are some GOOD vegan broth mixes out there or make your own. I like "Better Than Bouillon" brand vegetable base, comes in 8 oz jars. They make a mushroom one that is not bad too.)  Bring liquid and quinoa to a gentle boil and reduce heat to low for about 10- minutes;

Add one bunch fresh asparagus pieces, and one pound shrimp. Cook 5 minutes more. Transfer to large bowl and toss with 1/2 cup fresh basil, diced and 1/2 cup diced red onion and salt and pepper to taste.

NOW the vegan substitutes, there are several that would be good substitutes for the shrimp.

Tofu cubes, in which you cube tofu, marinate in soy sauce, or for this dish, I think a teriyaki sauce, or perhaps a Thai red or green coconut sauce, like for Thai curry.  If you are going to use the shrimp, these sauces  would be good on it too. Red or Green coconut sauce would go fine with the basil in fact.  After you marinate the tofu for a bit, gently brown the cubes in sesame flavored oil or olive oil or maybe coconut oil. Salt the tofu a bit during cooking if needed.  You could use herbs other than basil too perhaps, let your knowledge of herbs guide you.

Ok, those lovely green soybeans called Edamame would be very good.

Whole Cashews could be used also.

Or tempeh cubes which I love, done in a somewhat sweet sauce like Teriyaki or the Thai sauces above.   Tempeh is slightly cooked soybeans, woven together with a special mold that makes it solid. I used to make it at home, there is no longer any source of the mycelium locally, so I buy it ready made. You MUST steam the blocks at least 10 minutes before using, and a little more than that if you are not going to further cook it.

And of course, you can use the Quinoa with any other favorite things you like in a pilaf!  This is great stuff. And far superior to rice, or wheat pasta products for a pilaf.

Quinoa and Pistachio Salad

I have not tried this yet. This is a naturally vegan recipe, no substitutes needed. You can do all sorts of substitutes, and those of you who enjoy "macaroni" salad may likely prefer it with quinoa after you try it. And far better for you than white pasta macaroni.  OK, here's the recipe that is included with the above.

1 cup rinsed quinoa

1 cup vegetable broth (made at home, store bought, or the brand of bouillon paste I mentioned above)

1/2 cup water  1/2 cup orange juice.

Cook the quinoa in the broth, water and juice. (10 to 15 minutes, be sure to turn down after it comes to a boil to simmer.)

meanwhile: blend in blender, 1/3 cup fresh cilantro, 1/4 cup olive oil, 3 tTBS fresh lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon ground cumine, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp cheyenne pepper, 2 large garlic cloves, (chop them first a bit).

Then in a large bowl, combine the cooked quinoa, 1/2 to 3/4 cup chopped roasted red pepper, (these are always best made fresh at home by the way, but use the canned if you prefer), and 12 chopped oilives. Top with 1/2 cup chopped pistachios.  If you can't afford the pistachios or don't want to shell them, any nuts would be fine, particularly the cashew.

Now you see the versatility of Quinoa anyway. I can't eat much cheese, should not eat it at all, but once to lower the cheese filling in my enchiladas, I combined quinoa with a small amount of very sharp cheddar and this was really good. Cheese is simply too high in phosphates for star seed kidneys, and anybodies kidneys, in fact. Dairy consumption IS the LEADING CAUSE of osteo arthritis, which I have in abundance not knowing that before.

You can make any sort of cold salad with Quinoa.  Add diced up anything to it you like! Mix with favorite dressings, but I like it best with a nice oil and vinegar,  slightly sweetened.  You can use that mayo too, or ranch, but they aren't vegan.  I did find a nice vegan mayo I like by Nasoya.  The magic taste I like in it turns out to be soy milk. It's low in calories. I have't ever liked the egg free mayo's.  I think Kraft Salad dressing is vegan too.

The above salad with the nuts is pretty high in protein, you really wouldn't need something else.  You could add some of those nice green edamame soybeans too for more protein and perhaps some crumbled tofu marinated in salad dressing. I was going to add some of that today to those patties above, but forgot, and it wasn't needed anyway. It will get used in a salad.