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Jul. 26, 2008

Cooking with Quinoa ~ Tabbouleh

Posted in Kitchen and Recipes

I've had a package of Quinoa pronounced "keen-wah" in my cupboard for quite a while *grin* It is an ancient grain originally used by the Inca and cultivated in South America for more than 5000 years! It's also very easy to digest, great for vegetarians since it is super high in protein with omega fatty acids built in, and apparently is gluten free as well. So why wouldn't you want to try it out!? It needs a little prep work before cooking it. When Quinoa grows it has a built in bug repellent on it called saponin and it is very bitter tasting or at least that is what the health store clerk informed me. I must admit that this scared me off a little in the fact that I thought it might be to much of a hassle to get the yucky stuff off! LOL. But guess what? It is super easy and only takes a few minutes resulting in a super healthy meal!

*What I did was pour my one cup of uncooked quinoa into a bowl and run the hottest tap water I could get onto it until it was covered completely and then stirred it around for a minute. You can see that the water gets murky, so I then poured it through a very fine mesh sieve and repeated the process one more time for good measure :) After straining it the final time I ran some water through the sieve a little more and then I was ready to cook. It probably took me 5 minutes to prep it.

You can eat it just like you would with rice or use it in one of your dishes like I did today :) I've been eyeing up some yummy tabbouleh recipes on the food blogs and I thought that today I would give it a try using my quinoa instead of using bulgur or couscous. Now there are a lot of different variations on how to make tabbouleh out there and I used a multitude of sources to concoct this one, so this may not be like yours at all. *grin*

Ingredients:

1 cup of *prepped quinoa (see note above) cooked in 1 3/4 cups water and 1/2 tsp. salt for 15 minutes
1 big bunch of flat leaf parsley chopped
1 scallion thinly sliced
1 cucumber seeded and diced
2 cups of diced tomatoes
Juice of 2 lemons
Salt & Pepper

Cook your quinoa, let cool and mix it with all of the remaining ingredients. The flavors intensify if you have time to let it sit for a couple of hours or overnight. This is a really tasty and refreshing salad!

We ate it along with some of my moms special pizza she makes with fresh herb focaccia, topped with sun dried tomato sauce, ham, chives, tomatoes, havarti and asiago cheeses and some other tasty herbs :) Yummmmmmm!

What are you having for lunch tomorrow? I need some more fresh inspiration :)

Blessings,

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Comments

Jul. 27, 2008 - Untitled Comment

Posted by molytail

Mmmmmmmm, your tabbouleh sounds delicious! I've cooked with quinoa before, but I didn't make tabbouleh with it - just used it as a replacement for rice, more or less. Nobody else in my family likes it though, so it's rare. (I'm the only vegetarian)

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~About Me~

Hello from Canada! I am a homeschooling mom to 3 very rambunctious children ages 10, 6 & 3 years old while holding down the fort as tug boat captain 'Dad' sails the seven seas *grin*. We're located on 40 acres in a tiny rural community in beautiful British Columbia and this is my quirky journal about our homeschool journey, running my home based business 'RosyUndPosy' making 'Eco Friendly Bags 4 Green Living', and everyday life home on the farm. Hope you enjoy your visit :)

Looking East down Race and Current Passages to Helmcken Island

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Looking North across Johnstone Strait to Hardwicke Island

And this one is looking north across Johnstone Strait towards Hardwicke Island. Hit the refresh button on your browser to update the picture and make sure you stop by during daylight hours :)