Quinoa Salad - Quick, healthy and fulfilling breakfast/supper

What's Quinoa ?

Quinoa (pronounced "keen-wah") is a grain-like crop grown for its edible seeds. It's a highly nutritious carbohydrate, that helps you to stay lean as well as maximize your energy levels at the same time. Its nutritional profile is similar to that of brown rice, but quinoa is higher in protein. Quinoa is great for cardio-vascular health, boosts your anti-oxidant levels, reduces the risk of gallstones, full of fiber and could help lower migraine. It's gluten-free and cholesterol-free! Most importantly, it's delicious!

How to cook Quinoa ?

First, it is essential to rinse quinoa atleast 3 times by changing water, in order to get rid of the bitter taste from the saponin coating. It's cooked much like rice, with twice the volume of water (or slightly less). It can be cooked in a closed pan or a rice cooker or a microwave. When cooked, quinoa is fluffy, crunchy and a little creamy!


Here's a simple salad with veggies, fruits and nuts added to cooked quinoa. This is one of the quick ones I make whenever I want to stay away from Indian masalas, yet eat something tasty. Feel free to add or deduct veggies, fruits and nuts to suit your family's taste buds! :-)

Nutritious & delicious Quinoa salad - So easy to make!

Yield - 2 people

Prep time + cooking time - 25 mins

What I Used for the Salad-

Quinoa - 1 cup (rinsed)
Water - 1 and 3/4 cup
Olive Oil - 1 tsp


Onions - 2 (chopped)
Garlic -  4 pods, finely chopped
Carrot - 2 medium (cubed)
Cucumber - 1 (chopped)
Tomatoes - 3 (chopped)
Fresh Coriander leaves - a small bunch, finely chopped


Apple - 2, cubed
Raisins - about 50 grams
Cashewnuts - a handful
Hazelnuts - 2 handfuls

Salt - to taste
Pepper - 1 tsp
Asafoetida - 2 drizzles

Add ons :

Pine nuts - toasted
Peanuts - roasted
Strawberries - fresh!
Feta cheese! 

How To -

• Boil water with a drop of oil in a pan. Meanwhile, rinse quinoa about 3 times to get rid of the foamy saponins. This step is important, else you'll end up with bitter-tasting quinoa. Add rinsed quinoa to boiled water and close the pan. In 12 to 15 minutes, it's fully cooked (all the water is absorbed) and looks fluffy with thin white rings around. Let the cooked quinoa cool for atleast 10 minutes.

 

Quinoa, rinsed with water

Cooked quinoa

• Heat about 1 tsp of olive oil and fry garlic and onions slightly. Don't brown them. 

• Toast the nuts on an oven or a tava without any oil.

• Peel the veggies and chop them ready. Cube apples.
  

• Take a big salad bowl, add the slightly fried onions, garlic and all the chopped veggies, apples, nuts, raisins and sprinkle required salt, pepper and a little asafoetida. Toss everything gently. Squeeze some lemon juice if desired.

Healthy n tasty Quinoa salad

Enjoy this sumptuous salad for breakfast or dinner!

Chickpea Salad with Honey-Sweet Cherry Tomatoes

This is a very simple salad with lemon juice dressing and spiced with nothing more than salt and pepper. Cooked chickpeas and honey-sweet tomatoes (cherry tomatoes) are the highlight. We wanted a light (nothing oily or spicy) but a good breakfast and I made this today.

This is super-quick to make, with no cooking, except for presuure-cooking the chickpeas (Channa/ Chole).
Therefore, utterly easy and it's so full of goodness of raw veggies :)

Chickpea Salad with Honey-Sweet Cherry Tomatoes

Preparation time - 15 minutes
Cooking Time - 15 minutes

Serves 2

Ingredients -

• Chickpeas (White channa) - 3 handfuls, soaked overnight and cooked with salt
• If you don't have enough time to soak the cholé for 8 hours, soak for 3 hours and add a pinch of baking soda to the water when you pressure-cook.  
• Drain water and add only the cooked cholé to the salad. But the water is actually channa stock so full of nutrition, hence can be saved to be used later in a gravy, instead of water.
• Cherry tomatoes - 200 grams  
• Please choose those that are said to be sweet and crispy, the Thailand-made ones are really good
• Cut into half and add to salad
• Red Onion - 2 , finely chopped
• Tomato - 1 and 1/2 , finely chopped
• Red Capsicum/ Red Bell pepper - 1/2, very finely chopped
• Green or Yellow works as well
• Carrot - 2, shredded fine
• Fresh coriander/ cilantro - 4 mini-bunches, chopped  
• Please add the stalks too, as they give the crunchy texture

Dressing -

Juice of half a lemon
Salt - to taste (~1/3 tsp)
Black pepper - to taste (~1/2 tsp)

Cherry tomatoes

Honey-Sweet Cherry Tomatoes, Very small, about the size of a cherry, slightly oval

To Assemble -

Take all the ingredients in a big bowl and toss together. Squeeze juice from one-half off a lemon and sprinkle salt and pepper. Toss and gently mix again.

I didn't add chaat masala or garam masala, but you can add a pinch of either one, if you feel like.

Chickpea and Cherry Tomato Salad

Enjoy this salad for breakfast or a healthy tea-time snack. This is very filling because of the chickpeas we add.

Sending this to Soups and Salads Mela hosted by Srivalli

Brown Rice and Apple In Milk - Hearty Breakfast

I was looking for something different to make for breakfast and was also watching out for "attractive" ways to use up my Brown Rice. I came across this recipe and modified it a bit to suit my palate. So, here's what I did. I had a feeling this would taste good and it really did :)

• I cooked brown rice with milk and water (1 cup rice, 1 cup milk, 1.5 cups water). Remember, how delicious Ven Pongal tastes when you cook rice in milk?  I had pre-soaked brown rice in water, as usual for 2 hours.
• Then, I melted butter (~2 tsp)on a pan and added chopped apple pieces (from 2 apples) and allowed them to soften a bit. 
• Drizzled honey over the apples (as a healthy alternative to sugar) and then tossed the rice and apples together.
• Took a cereal bowl, added some fresh cold milk and added this rice and apple mixture. That's it :) 

 I did everything in the same pan (I used a 28 cm big pan with a glass lid) - first, cooked rice, then, dug a hole and melted butter and sautéed apples and mixed them.

Brown Rice and Caramelized Apple in Milk

Let me warn you, this is not my typical kinda food but it was realllly awesome! You can call it whatever you want - porridge, cereals... what's in a name, after all ? :)  I personally think, this won't go well if you use normal white rice. The nutty texture of brown rice, the caramelized apples and sweetness of honey were just a perfect combination! I was soo full until after 1 in the afternoon that day and felt happy about not succumbing to another cup of tea at 10:30 am :)

Sending this to CWS: Rice event hosted by Kaarasaaram.com

Potato Salad - American Style

I'm certainly not an expert in American food but we both love their potato salad, onion rings, mashed potato, pancakes, pumpkin pie, apple coleslaw and much more...That explains why Billy Bombers is our favorite place to dine on a weekend.

I wanted to try potato salad at home since it appeared to be simple and promptly added Red Skinned potatoes to my Mustafa shopping list, since we were going there anyway. In fact, it is very simple. I have adapted the recipe to suit my taste but the original recipe is Rachael Ray's.

But you may ask, why red skin potato, why not the usual brown-skinned Russet potatoes? The differences are that red potatoes are sweeter and less starchy and more nutritious too. Also, they are cooked with their skin on (slightly scrubbed though) because it’s relatively thin and soft and adds extra fiber to the dish. On the other hand, brown potatoes are best suited for frying/roasting, baking and they make the perfect fluffy mashed potato. More on that later...

Now, let's move on to the recipe.
 
What I Used -

Red Potatoes - 3
Yellow Onion - 1/2 (chopped)
Garlic - 3 pods, chopped
Italian seasonings - 3/4 tsp
Mayonnaise - 3 heaped table spoons (Choose the one that has Dijon mustard and Vinegar as well) *
Olive oil - 2 tsp
Salt - to taste
Pepper (I used 4 black pepper pods and powdered them with a small hammer) - to taste

How I Made It -

• Wash the potatoes thoroughly and scrub the skin lightly (with a knife) so that there is no dirt.

• Cook them in a pan with enough water and salt (I added 1/2 tsp). Note that mayo usually contains salt. The potatoes should still be firm but just cooked at the same time. I boiled water first, added the potatoes, switched off after exactly 12 minutes and let them sit in the hot water for 5 more minutes. Drain the water and let cool (When too hot, they can get mashed up very easily). 

• Take a skillet, heat olive oil and fry garlic and onions for 3-4 minutes. 

• Take a bowl, add mayonnaise and add the fried garlic and onions to it. Add the Italian seasonings as well.  Add pepper powder. Mix them thoroughly.
• If you wish to avoid mayo (or its cholesterol), stir in a diced avocado* instead.

• Cut the cooked potatoes into big chunks and add to the bowl. Toss them carefully so that the potatoes don't get mashed. Mix them gently so that the potatoes are covered with the dressing.

• Garnish with celery. I used cilantro though :)

• Refrigerate for 8 hours before serving. This gives time for the flavors to blend in well.

Let me know if you liked it too :)

Sending this recipe to Soups and Salads Mela hosted by Srivalli and Breakfast Club hosted by Scrumptious Sally

Red Bean Salad - Quick, Healthy Salad

After feasting on Malai Kofta, I thought it's best to compensate by eating something healthy, for a change ;) Searched my freezer and found different beans such as red beans, black eyed beans, white hyacinth bean(mochai in Tamil) and I picked the red ones. Here's a simple salad that I tried with easy-to-get ingredients.

What You Need -

Red Beans - 1 cup
Tomato - 1/2 big or 1 small
Onion- 1/2 medium
Red, Yellow and Orange Capsicum - 1/2 cup (chopped)
Coriander leaves/Cilantro - a few

Pav Bhaji/Chaat Masala - 1/2 tsp
Salt - to taste


For the Vinaigrette -

Sugar - 1/2 tsp
Juice from half-lemon
Honey - 1 tsp
Jeera powder -  3/4 tsp
Thousand Island dressing - 1 tbsp (optional)
Olive Oil - 1.5 tsp


How To -

• Soak Red Beans overnight for 12 hours or more. 
• I had a bad experience with a particular variety of red beans not being cooked well. I learnt that the Chinese Red beans needs to be soaked for 24-36 hours :(  
• I changed water every 12 hours and at the end of 36 hours, there was a significant difference in the size and softness of the red beans.

Just beginning to soak

After 36 hours

• Pressure-cook the soaked beans with salt.
• Chop tomatoes, onions, bell peppers and cilantro finely.

           => Dunk onions in hot water for 5 minutes to get rid of the raw smell.

• Sprinkle Pav bhaji masala or Chaat masala over them.

• Let's prepare the vinaigrette now by adding all the ingredients in that order, in a bowl. Beat them well together. Continue to whisk until it is smooth and tastes good. Add salt if required.

Before whisking

• Mix with the red beans and veggies and enjoy your healthy meal :) The Red beans make it quite filling indeed. Feel free to increase their quantity, if you like to.

Do drop a line if you tried and liked this :)