Quinoa Summer Salad

It's has been an incredibly warm week / long weekend and I've been Barbecuing a ton! I still love making my Hamburgers but I wanted a healthy side option to go with them. This is were a quinoa salad comes into play! You were probably thinking I was going to say something Lentil based but I'll save that for another week ;)

This quinoa salad has a light basil-lemon dressing and it almost gives it a slight lime flavor.




Ingredients (Salad):
1 - Cup of Quinoa (precook and cool a head of time)
1 - Can (341ml) of Chick peas (drain and rinse)
1 - Can (341ml) of Corn (drain and rinse)
1 - Orange Bell Pepper (diced)
1 - Avocado (diced)
2 - Plumb Tomatoes (or Vine tomatoes patted down with a paper towel)
2 - Green Onions (diced)


Ingredients (Dressing):
2 - Tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
5-8 - Fresh Basil Leaves (diced)
Juice from one Lemon
Salt and Pepper to taste

(Quinoa not shown as it was already cooking)

Directions:
If you haven't done it already, start with cooking the quinoa. Normally I would use Chicken stock but I didn't want the quinoa to pick up any extra flavor so I cooked it 2 Cups water to 1 Cup quinoa.

Put the Chick peas, Corn, Pepper, Avocado, Tomato and Green Onion into a large bowl. Take a pretty picture and then mix it all together.

In small bowl, mix the olive oil, lemon, basil, salt and pepper.

Pour the dressing over the salad and mix again. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour to let the flavors combined.

Serve as a healthy side with your favorite main :)

You'll have a fair bit of the salad leftover so you can eat it on it's own for a nice light lunch or you can put it in a soft Tortillas shell to make a wrap

Mushroom Quinoa

In the past I have found that quinoa was pretty plain and that it didn't have much flavor. It wasn't until I found this recipe that I found out quinoa could be so much more! By using mushroom, onion and cooking the quinoa in beef broth you can add a lot more flavor to them!



Ingredients:
1 - Tbsp Butter
1 - Medium Onion chopped
2 - Cups Mushrooms sliced
3/4 - Tsp of Salt
1 - Cup Quinoa
1/4 - Tsp of Dried Thyme
2 - Cups of Beef Broth


Directions:
Place chopped onion and butter into a frying pan over low - medium heat.

Slice up your mushrooms.

When the onions have started to turn a little translucent, add the mushrooms.

Fry until the mushrooms start to brown.

Add the Quinoa, Salt and Thyme. Stir, then raise the heat to medium and dry cook for 3 - 4 minutes more to toast and heighten the flavors.

Add the beef stock, reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for about 15 - 17 minutes (most of the liquid should be absorbed but the everything will still be a little damp).

Turn off the heat, fluff the Quinoa with a fork, then cover and let steam for another 10 minutes so that everything can finish absorbing.

Plate and serve as a side dish or have it on it's own with some Naan. I also like to take it in my lunch as a mid-morning snack or wrap it in full pieces of Iceberg lettuce for a healthy Quinoa lettuce wrap!

Lentil Appetizers

Lately I've been on a bit of a Lentil cooking spree (that's a bit of an understatement) and after watching all these videos on the Lentil Hunter Website (yes, it's a real site!) I was inspired to make a bunch of Lentil based Appetizers!

Lentil Hummus
This is one of the quickest and easiest recipes that I have ever made and it's so tasty!

Borscht Lentil Dip
I love Borscht so I was really interested to see what a Borscht Lentil Dip tasted like.

Cheesy Lentil Biscuits
These were supposed to turn out looking like Cheesy Bread Sticks but they didn't quite turn out that way. But on the plus side they were really good!

Time to enjoy some Drinks and Appz!!!

Lentil Hummus

Have you ever wanted to make your own hummus? I've never tried making one until now. This recipe is incredible quick and easy to make. It literately takes 5 minutes to make.




Ingredients:
1 - 540ml Can of Green Lentils, drained and rinsed
1/2 - Cup fat-free ranch dressing
1/2 - Tsp Curry Powder
2 - Cloves of Garlic



Directions:
Rinse of the lentils.

Combine Lentils, Curry Powder and Garlic in a food processor.

 Scoope into a small bowl and serve with crackers :)

Borscht Lentil Dip

This recipe sounded really interesting to me. I make a pretty mean Borscht so I just had to try this Borscht Lentil dip. Give it a shoot and I think you will like it!




Ingredients:
3/4 - Cup Cooked or Canned Lentils
2/3 - Cup Pickled Beets
1/4 - Cup Sour Cream
1 - Tbsp Olive Oil
1 - Tbsp Chopped Fresh Dill
1/2 - Tsp Salt
1/2 - Tsp Pepper




Directions:
Cook Lentils.

Add Lentils to Food Processor.

Add Sour Cream.

Blend.

Add the Beets.

And Dill.

Puree until smooth

Serve with some pretzel chips.

Cheesy Lentil Biscuits

Lentils in Cheesy Biscuits? That's just nuts! or is it... even though these things didn't turn out exactly like I wanted them too. They look like blobs instead of bread sticks and the cheese melted instead of coming out and melting all around them but they still tasted really good.

(The lighting wasn't the greatest but they have kind of a cookie colour)

Ingredients:
1/2 - Cup Butter
1 - Cup Flour
1 - Cup Rice Crispy Cereal
3/4 - Cup Cheddar Cheese, grated
3/4 - Cup Red Lentils, Pureed*
1 - Egg, beaten



Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 F.  In a large bowl, mix butter into flour until there are a lot of little chunks.

Stir in the cereal.

Add in the Cheese.

Mix in the Puree Lentils. *For Puree Lentils you can either used canned lentils that have been rinsed or you can cook the lentils until done then add 1/4 cup of water for every 1 coup of cooked lentils before pureeing.

Pour into mixture and mix together.

Add in the beaten egg and mix together again.

Spoon out onto an ungreased baking sheet into long thin pieces like cheese bread.

(I made mind too tick)

Put them in the oven and bake for 15 - 17 minutes depending on the thickness of the pieces.

Transfer from baking sheet to a nice looking plate and enjoy :)