Tried and Tasted on Tuesday's: Dec 21st 2010

Today is Tuesday and I am back today with a delicious dish that I tried and tasted in my kitchen following the recipe shared by one of my wonderful blog pal who presents her delicious dishes beautifully.This is a very healthy dish that could be made instantly and is ready in 30 minutes from start to finish.

Without further ado here is the bookmarked dish of the day--------

1)  Instant Quinoa Idli from Taste of Pearl City by Umm Mymoonah .

This was a very simple and easy to make dish and was a instant hit.We all enjoyed eating this delicious Instant Quinoa Idli with chutney.I followed most of her recipe as is except that I made the following changes:

I used red quinoa grains instead of regular quinoa and also used 1 cup sooji instead of 1/2 cup.I also added crushed ginger along with chillies to the batter.I also added 1/4 cup of grated carrot , a pinch of asafoetida,1/2tsp of ajwain(carom) seeds and few toasted cashews to the batter.

Thank you Umm Mymoonah for sharing this delicious and healthy dish with us.Please visit her blog for the recipe tried here today and also for many delicious dishes she has in store for us to try and to experiment.Will be back next week with more tried and tasted recipes.

This goes to Bookmarked on Tuesdays Event hosted by Priya Mitharwal .

Quinoa Tabouleh/Quinoa Salad with Mint Cilantro Pesto

After a long wait I could finally find a pack of red quinoa at the regular Trader Joe's I often visit.Last week when I saw Priya's Quinoa Tabouleh ,I was eager to make it.My recipe today is an inspiration from her's.I did not have all the ingredients needed for the original tabouleh ,so using the ingredients I had in hand, I modified it and this sure tasted very very delicious.Two thumbs up from my family.

When I was looking for vegetable stock to cook this I stumbled upon a pack of organic low-sodium tomato soup that I got from TJ that was inside.I was looking at it's expiry date and it was nearing it's expiration in couple of days.So I decided to cook the quinoa with the tomato soup instead of cooking with vegetable broth.

Here is my version of the Quinoa Tabouleh---------------

Main Ingredients :

----------------------

Red Quinoa.........................................1cup

Organic Tomato Soup.........................2cups(low-sodium)

Baby Spinach......................................1cup

Carrots................................................2big(finely grated)

Celery..................................................2sticks(finely chopped)

Onion..................................................1small(finely chopped)

Seasoning Ingredients :

------------------------------

Pepper Powder.................................1tsp

Mint Leaves......................................1/4 cup

Coriander Leaves..............................1/4 cup

Green Chillies....................................2(small)

Lemon Juice......................................1/4 cup

Salt....................................................1tsp 

Preparation :

--------------------

First rinse the quinoa under cold water atleast 5 times and discard the water.Now place the rinsed quinoa in a sauce pan and add 2 cups of tomato soup and cook for 15 minutes or till done.

Transfer the cooked quinoa to a bowl and let it rest.Mean while cut the celery and onion into small pieces and a make a fine shred of the carrots.Now add one after the other all the cut vegetables to the warm quinoa.

Blend the cilantro, mint, chillies, lemon juice and salt into a nice paste ,add water if needed.Now add the onions and the mint-cilantro pesto to the quinoa.

Mix all the ingredients well so that the quinoa and the veggies get well coated with the pesto.Delicious Quinoa Tabouleh/Salad with Mint-Cilantro Pesto is ready to be served on a bed of baby spinach.

Note : 

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1) I did not add any additional salt to the dish as the tomato soup had salt in it.It was enough to flavor the quinoa.

2) I added just a teaspoon of salt to the pesto.

3) It was a great way to use up my soup before it expired.

This goes to CWF-WG : Quinoa Event hosted by Priya Mitharwal .

This goes to BB4: What's Lurking in the Kitchen? event hosted by Nupur.

This goes to CWS : Pepper Event hosted by Padma started by Priya .

This goes to Healing Foods : Onion Event hosted by Priya started by Siri .

Quinoa Idli-A Very Healthy Steamed Cake/Quinoa Uthappam

I have been using Quinoa for few years now in my kitchen in making traditional Indian dishes.You can find my other recipes with Quinoa here , here and here.Today I am posting the recipe for Quinoa Idli that I made recently.This is again one of my experiments with Quinoa and turned out great.I have many more Quinoa recipe to share with you soon.For now enjoy this yummy and healthy Idli.

I did not want the flavor of Quinoa to be dominated by the Urad or Rice so I added all of them in equal quantities and made the idli.It's a super hit and got a green signal for permanent residency in our menu. 

This is how I made it-----------------------

Main Ingredients :

----------------------

Quinoa.................................1cup

Urad Daal............................1cup

Brown Rice..........................1cup(Whole High Fibre Short Grain Brown Rice)

Seasoning Ingredients :

-------------------------

Salt.....................................to taste

Oil.....................................for greasing the idli moulds

Preparation :

----------------

Rinse and soak urad daal , quinoa and brown rice over-night (6 to 8 hrs) in separate bowls.

Next day morning you will see that the urad and rice are well soaked and the quinoa is well soaked and sprouted too.(Could not capture the sprouts clearly).

First grind the urad to a batter nice and smooth using less water and pour it into a bowl.

Later grind brown rice to a smooth batter using less water as well.Now add the brown rice batter to the urad batter and mix well.

Now grind the quinoa to a smooth batter using less water as well and pour it into urad-rice batter ,add salt and mix well.

Place the bowl of batter in the oven with the light on and let it ferment for 6 to 8 hours.You can see in the pictures how well the batter is fermented .

Once the batter is fermented take it out mix well and check for salt and adjust salt accordingly.

Now take a pan/idli cooker/pressure cooker ( in which the idli stand can fit ) and place it on the stove on medium- high heat and pour 2 glasses of water.While the water in the pan or cooker is heating  up grease the idli moulds with oil and spoon the batter into the moulds.Do not overfill.

Place the idli stand in the pan/cooker and cook it covered for 15 to 20 minutes and then switch off the stove.
(If using pressure cooker do not put the cooker whistle).

Wait for the steam to settle down and take the idli stand out and remove the quinoa idlis into a bowl or hot pack.

Serve the yummy and healthy Quinoa Idlies with Chutney , Sambhar or Chutney Powder of your choice.

Along with the idlis I made small pancakes or utappams with this batter and I should say they really came out so nice and spongy like the western pancakes.

We had the Quinoa Idlies and Quinoa Utappam with Dalia-Coconut chutney and CurryLeaves-Lentil Powder.


Try these wonderful idlies and let me know how you like them.

Note :
---------
1) After fermentation if you taste the batter it feels bitter because of the natural bitterness in the Quinoa but once you make the idlis or utappams you will not feel the bitterness in it as Quinoa tends to loose the bitterness after it's cooked.
2) As this was the first time I made idly with Quinoa I did not add too many ingredients to it as I like to enjoy the original flavors at first.Now that I know how it tastes I will try adding veggies to this batter next time and make vegetable idlies.

This goes to CWF-WG : Quinoa Event hosted by Priya Mitharwal .

Quinoa Porridge/Pudding/Kheer

This is a very healthy recipe.We all know that Quinoa is getting great attention because of it's high protein and allergen free characteristics.I like this grain very much as being a vegetarian it is hard to get enough protein from one dish.This is one more recipe that I came up with. I would say that the dish I am presenting can be eaten for breakfast as a porridge or can be served as a dessert or can be eaten for a quick and healthy dinner.

Ingredients Required :
-----------------------
Quinoa - 1 Cup
Water - 2 Cups
Whole Grain Milk - 3 Cups (Organic Unsweetened)
Dates - 20
Cashew - 2 tbsp

For Garnishing :
----------------
Cardamom.....................5(powdered)
Pistachios...............1tbsp
Golden Raisins........2tsp
Cashews................1tsp
Ghee......................1tsp

Preparation :
-------------
First rinse the quinoa 5 to 6 times nicely in water and drain so that the bitterness of the grains is gone.

Soak the dates and cashews in warm water in separate  bowls. 
  

Now pressure cook the quinoa in a pressure pan directly with 2cups of water for 2 whistles.

Once the pressure is gone remove the lid of the pressure pan.You will notice that the quinoa is nicely cooked.

Now switch  the stove on medium heat and add 3cups of organic whole grain milk to the pan of quinoa and stir well.Let the milk and quinoa start to bubble.

Grind the dates and cashews into paste.Now add the dates paste and stir well.

 Later add the cashew paste,cardamom powder and stir well and let cook for 5 more minutes on low heat so that the dates and cashew flavor blend in well.

Meanwhile in a pan add 1tsp of ghee and toast the raisins and all the nuts of your choice and keep them aside.

After 5minutes add the nuts to the quinoa-dates porridge/pudding/kheer and tranfer it to a serving bowl.

Yummy and healthy Quinoa Porridge/Pudding/Kheer is ready to be served.

Note :
-------
1. I did not use any other sweeteners except dates. If you like it sweeter you can add sugar/jaggery/honey/agave nectar.

2. You can use regular milk instead of whole grain milk. This organic unsweetened whole grain milk is made from organic brown rice, amaranth, millet and quinoa.

3.You can use almonds instead of cashews.

Earlier I posted this recipe on Nithu's Guest Post and now I am posting it on my blog to send this to couple of events.

This goes to CWF-WG : Quinoa Event hosted by Priya Mitharwal.

I am sending this to Jihva : BreakFast event being hosted by Suma and started by Indira .

I am sending this to EVENT : KHEER FESTIVAL AT EASY2COOKRECIPES  started and hosted by Shama Nagarajan.

I am sending this to Show Me Your Whole Grains event being hosted by Divya.

Quinoa-Moong Daal Dosa(Oil-Free Quinoa Pesarattu)

This is one more heart healthy and protein rich dish.Very quick and easy to make ,very tasty and nutritious to eat.Ok let's see what ingredients we need to make this dosa--------

Main Ingredients :

-------------------

Quinoa Grains..................2cups

Moong Daal.....................1cup

Water...............................3cups

Flavor Ingredients :

--------------------

Ginger............................2inches

GreenChillies..................6(small)

Salt................................to taste

First we need to rinse the quinoa grains and  moong daal well and soak in separate bowls for 1 hour.

After an hour place the soaked quinoa in the food processor/blender/mixie and grind quinoa,1 inch ginger and 3 chillies with required salt to a nice paste with water and take it into a bowl.

Now add the soaked moong ,1 inch ginger and 3 chillies with required salt  and water and grind that into a smooth batter and add it to the quinoa batter.Mix the 2 batters in the bowl very well so that the flavor is unique.If the batter is thick we can add some water to it.

Now place a griddle on the stove and heat it up and once it is ready add 2 ladles of batter to it and spread into a dosa.Make sure that the dosa is well done on both the sides.

Once done take it into a plate and serve it with dalia chutney or ginger chutney or peanut chutney or sambar.The choice is yours.

Make this protein rich dosa pretty soon and let me know what you think.

Note :

--------

1)One important thing to do is you need to rinse the quinoa very well before you soak or cook as this grain tends to have some bitterness on the outer skin.If you don't rinse it would taste bitter.

2)I did not use any oil in this dosa.We don't need to.If you want you may use oil.

3)You can eat this dosa just by itself as it has flavors of ginger and chilli.

4)Eating the quinoa pesarattu when it is hot makes it more tasty.

This goes to CF-WG : Quinoa Event hosted by Priya Mitharwal.

I am sending this Quinoa-Moong Daal Dosa(Oil Free Quinoa Pesarattu) to JIHVA-Breakfast event being guest hosted by Suma of Veggie Platter which was originally founded by Indira of Mahanandi.

Oil Free Quinoa Dosa/Crepe

Quinoa Dosa or Quinoa Crepe is a very healthy recipe for dosa/crepe lovers.This is a very nutritious recipe with various variations.For now we will look at the basic Quinoa dosa recipe.

Required Ingredients:

----------------------

Quinoa grains....2cups

Water....enough for soaking

Yogurt....4cups

Salt......to taste

Preparation:

------------

Wash the Quinoa grains thoroughly 3 times with cold water so that the bitterness of the grain is washed out.Now soak the washed Quinoa in water or directly in the yogurt for 20 minutes.After soaking put the whole soaked grains with yogurt in the blender and make a smooth batter so that it is in a pourable consistency.If it is thick you can add little water.Add salt to the batter and mix well.

Making Dosa:

-------------

Now that the batter is ready,take a non-stick pan and heat it on medium temperature.

Once the pan heated pour 2 ladles of batter on the heated tawa/pan and quickly move the ladle in circular motions from inside to outside and make a nice circular dosa.You don't need to use any oil for these dosas.They are very good without oil.

Once the dosa is done on one side flip it to the other side and keep it on the tawa for a minute and serve it with any chutney or sambar.

This goes to CWF-WG : Quinoa Event hosted by Priya Mitharwal.