Quinoa with Roasted Potatoes, Green Beans, Tomato & Cilantro
Ingredients
Quinoa Red or Traditional
Red Potatoes Chopped & Roasted
Corn Cooked & Cut off the Cob
Green Beans Steamed
Tomatoes Chopped
Cilantro Minced
Cumin Seed Toasted & Ground
Olive Oil
Lemon & Lime
Sea Salt & Cayenne
This main course grain & vegetable 'salad' has been the hit dish of any summer season in our household for home or pot luck meals. The cooked quinoa, mixed with roast potatoes or tofu along with the freshest just cooked green vegetables from the farmer's market, lightly seasoned with the tastes of summer, make this dish not only easy to prepare but delicious to eat & filled with protein for someone on a vegetarian diet!
Quinoa is the grain highest in protein with 16 percent protein & unlike other grains it's a complete protein according to my favorite nutritionist, Rebecca Wood.
Check out our library where you can read many of her easy to prepare & delicious recipes in our recipes section as well as her health recommendations) I once grew quinoa & found it delightful to grow & behold in our garden. I also learned how much I needed to learn about threshing after my experiments in cooking the quinoa I grew!
Cooking Directions
Assemble your ingredients first. Wash, chop & roast some farmer's market red potatoes until tender & browned. Just chop, coat with a high heat oil or ghee & roast. When cooked, mix with sea salt & pepper & set aside.
Take a fork & break up your pre-cooked quinoa, red or traditional.
Assemble your vegetables & either flash saute them on high heat in ghee or a high temperature cooking oil or steam them until crisp tender.
Chop tomatoes & set aside. Cut cooked corn off the cob & set aside.
Prepare your fresh cilantro by cleaning, drying & chopping, set aside. Toast your cumin seed & grind & set aside.
Blanch or cook your string beans & chop into bite size pieces & set aside.
Optional: Once you have everything cooked & assembled, just heat your pan again, a good size frying pan & once hot, you can either saute in just a bit of water or use oil which can take high heat. I sometimes like to cook this in ghee to add the healing properties of that magical food. Heat up the grain first, then add in your other cooked & prepared ingredients until just heated through & your flavors have mingled.
Or skip the reheating & just assemble in a bowl & season with good cold pressed olive oil, sea salt & cayenne pepper to taste. Stir in the ground toasted cumin seed, chopped green leafy herbs & sprinkle liberally with fresh squeezed lemon & lime. Stir to mix flavors together & serve at room temperature.
Serve with Peach, Tomato & Corn Relish.
Variations
You can also use bulghur wheat, corn grits, rice, quinoa, millet grain or even cooked leftover pasta.Get some good quality non GMO tofu & cut into bite size pieces. (This recipe pictured here uses zucchini & green beans along with the tofu & corn off the cob.)Use sweet peas or snap peas or even Chinese pea pods, summer or winter squash or any other vegetable to your taste.
Prepare your fresh leafy herbs. This recipe pictured here used thai basil, one of my favorite basils. Any basil, cilantro or other leafy herbs would work such as lemon Verbena, lemon balm, Tulsi Basil, oregano, parsley or any other favored green leafy herb will work in this recipe.
Assemble toasted spices such as anise seed, cumin or fennel seed. (See note at the end about toasting spices).
Toasting Spices: To toast spices, which brings forth a deeper flavor and makes them easier to crush in a mortar & pestle, just place a single layer of seeds into a shallow pan like a frying pan. Place over a low heat & move the pan from side to side to make sure the seeds don't burn. As soon as you smell the toasting aromas, it's close to time to take the spices off the heat. They can burn in just a moment beyond smelling them, so watch them with care, make sure your flame is low. Once they have toasted, move them onto a plate to cool off, then you can grind them in a spice grinder or by hand in a mortar & pestle or use whole as is in any recipe calling for those spices. The toasting of the seeds brings their flavor to a whole new level of taste. Once you try this, you'll do it again & again & feel free to experiment with lots of different seeds. Toasting seeds like sunflower, pumpkin or nuts such as almonds, macadamia or pine nuts brings out their flavor as well & makes them more digestible. To toast nuts, place in a shallow pan into a preheated oven set at no higher than 225 - 250 degrees. Toast until done, slim seeds need only about 15-20 minutes at the most & fat nuts like macadamia, depending on their freshness & oil content can take up to 40 minutes at 225 degrees.
*Taking Corn off the Cob: cook your Non GMO corn in a steamer or a shallow wide pan where you can cook it in just an inch or two of water. When the corn is just cooked (there are many debates about how long this takes), then set aside to cool. Once cool enough to handle, take a good long sharp knife & keep the corn steady on a clean flat surface or plate with your left hand as you run the knife down each side cutting close to the cob. When you've gone all the way around the corn cob, turn the knife over & use the dull side of the knife (not the blade) & run it along each side to remove the juicy germ from next to the cob. This is full of flavor & moisture you don't want to miss.
Serve with Peach, Tomato & Corn Relish
Suggested Alternate Ingredient List
Brown Rice or any other grain already cooked & left over
Sweet Potatoes or Sweet Winter Squash
Zucchini or any summer squash
Peas or Snap Peas
Bok Choi, Chard or Spinach
Corn cooked on the cob & sliced off, including the Corn Germ*
Tofu
Sungold Cherry Tomatoes
Leafy Cleaned Herbs such as basil, cilantro, lemon verbena, parsley, epazote
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Jane Sherry, one of the Founders of Satya Center is a Reiki practitioner/teacher, spiritual counselor, creator of healing art talismans, healing gardens & loves to cook! She has a background in the visual arts before moving into the healing arts and has been a longtime lover of herbs & spices & cooking. She newly resides in Boca Raton, Florida, about one hour north of Miami. She works the Satya Center healing practice with co-founder and husband, Curtis Lang and co-operates the Satya Center Crystal Gallery and web portal. Plans for new gardens are germinating fast here in the Florida sunshine, well watered by lots of tropical rains. You will always find crystals in among the herbs, flowers, spice & vegetable gardens!