Quinoa Colour Salad

I was at the gym on Friday and was watching Chef At Home, like I always do when I work out. Chef Michael Smith was doing an episode on healthy alternatives. He made a meatloaf with ground turkey instead of ground beef, an apple pie with whole wheat flour and oats crust (instead of lard and white flour!), and a quinoa salad. 

For those who don't know about it, quinoa (pronounced "kee-no-ah" or "keen-wah") is a grain that orginates in the Andes of South America. It cooks similarly to rice and looks just like couscous, but is packed with WAY more nutrients. Check this out:

Per 45 gram serving (cooked quinoa on its own):

180 calories

3.5 grams of fat (0 saturated, 0 trans fat)

7 grams of protein (This is phenomenal for all you vegetarian types!!!)

7% of recommended daily intake of Potassium

4% Vitamin A

2% Calcium

15% Iron (More awesome-ness for vegetarians!)

20% Vitamin E

6& Vitamin B1

15% Vitamin B2

8% Folate (the "pregnancy" vitamin!)

20% Phosphorus

25% Magnesium

20% Zinc (awesome for fighting colds)

Anyway, after seeing all this nutritional content, I decided to try out the Quinoa Colour Salad recipe - called so because it has so many colourful veggies in it! I'll save the whole wheat and oats apple pie for another time!

Ingredients:

1 cup quinoa

1 carrot, peeled and grated

1 red pepper, seeded and diced

3 green onions, sliced thinly

1 cucumber, chopped

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

1/4 cup olive oil

salt

pepper

Directions:

1. Rinse quinoa in cold water. It washes off the bitter coating that naturally covers the grain.

2. Cook as directed on package.

3. In the meantime, add all of your veggies to a bowl.

4. Add the lemon zest and lemon juice.

5. When the quinoa is done, fluff with a fork and add to veggies and lemon.

6. Add olive oil.

7. Salt and pepper to taste.

8. Toss well.

Notes:

You can serve this warm or cold. I tried it warm, and I think I would prefer it cold. 

The original recipe calls for fresh parsely, diced. I might add that next time, but I forgot to pick it up when I was at the grocery store. 

I might add some more veggies - tomatoes, seeded and chopped, would be great. Or sundried tomatoes... mmmm...

As an alternative to the olive oil, you could add a low-fat, oil-based salad dressing to season the salad.

Otherwise, the original recipe is pretty damn good.  Thumbs up!

Mushroom Cheddar Vegetarian Burgers

Rob and I tried out a veggie burger recipe this weekend, and we were pleasantly surprised! It was really easy, and the mess was minimal!!

The recipe is by Elizabeth Baird from Canadian Living Cooks. I found it online at www.foodtv.ca. (my favourite source for recipes!)

Mushroom Cheddar Vegetarian Burgers

Yield:  4 

INGREDIENTS:

2 tsp vegetable oil

1small onion, grated

1 1/2 cup finely chopped mushroom

1/2 tsp dried Italian herb seasoning

1 x 19 oz can white kidney beans, drained, and, rinsed

1 egg, yolk, lightly, beaten

2 tbsp dry breadcrumbs

1/4 tsp pepper

3 oz old cheddar cheese, sliced

4 lettuce leaf

4 whole wheat pita, breads

DIRECTIONS:

1. In nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat; cook onion, mushrooms and Italian seasoning; stirring, for about 8 minutes or until mixture is just starting to brown and liquid is evaporated. Let cool slightly.
   
2. In bowl, mash kidney beans with fork. Add mushroom mixture, egg yolk, bread crumbs and pepper; mix well. Shape into four 1/2 inch (1 cm) thick patties. (Make-ahead: Cover and refrigerate for up to 6 hours)
   
3. Place patties on greased grill over medium-high heat; close lid and cook for 5 minutes or until golden brown. Sandwich along with lettuce in pitas.

All in all, it turned out well... We made a few changes:

1. We used grated cheese and integrated it with the mixture, instead of putting it on top.
2. We added more mushrooms than the recipe calls for. Upon tasting the recipe the first time around, we decided it tasted too much like beans and not enough like mushrooms. 
3. We fried them in a pan instead of grilling them. (The snow was covering the BBQ).
4. We used burger buns instead of pitas. We also topped it off with your typical burger toppings.

Next time around, I'd like to try using a different kind of beans. Black beans, possibly. Chick peas would be good too. I'd also only use a half can to start, and add them in as necessary to bind everything together.  

This is a great recipe as it's very flexible. It would be great with portabello mushrooms and Swiss cheese, or you could do black beans and monterey jack for something a little different. You could add in jalapenos or olives or whatever you wanted to give it the flavour you like. 

Who has two thumbs and really likes this recipe? This girl. 

:)