Healthy Recipes, yay!

I have recently discovered a wonderful grain that I had previously not heard of. After searching the internet, it appears I have been living under a rock. Quinoa (pron. keen-wa) is an Aztec grain, that is wonderfully nutritious. It is one of the few non-animal foods that contains all of the amino acids the body needs, making it a wonderful food for vegetarians. It is also incredibly versatile. You can use it in place of rice in savoury dishes, you can cook it in milk and berries as a breakfast cereal, you can make desserts out of it. I made a wonderfully tasty quinoa salad for lunch today that I would like to share with you.

Pandy's Quinoa Salad

1 cup of cold cooked quinoa
big handful of drained, rinsed chickpeas
handful of chopped red pepper
1 tablespoon of chopped red onion

handful of chopped salad greens (I used beetroot leaves, but basil, rocket, spinach, mustard, peas or beans would be fine)

Dressing:
3 tablespoons of plain yoghurt
1 clove garlic, crushed
squeeze of lemon juice.

Mix salad ingredients together. In a separate bowl, mix dressing. Serve together, serves one. Yum!

If you wanted to, you could serve your quinoa salad in a quinoa (or wholegrain) pita pocket! To make quinoa flour, just put the required amount of quinoa in a food processor until it has the consistency of wholemeal flour. If you like, you can use a mixture of quinoa and linseeds, or just experiment with your own grains. Quinoa flour has a very mild taste, but I like to use it because of the large amount of nutrients. If you've never made bread before, don't let that put you off. The instructions may look complicated, but they're really not, pita bread is so simple to make.

Pita Bread

2½ teaspoons dry yeast
1 teaspoon honey
1 cup of warm water
2¼ bread flour (also known as high grade or heavy flour)
½ cup of quinoa or wholemeal flour
1 teaspoon of salt

• In a bowl, mix honey and water until honey is dissolved. Add yeast and stand for 5 minutes or until foamy.
• In a large bowl, mix together the flours and the salt. Mix in yeast mixture and knead on a floured board until elastic and no longer sticky. Add more flour as needed.
• Wash and dry bowl and lightly oil it. Place dough in the bowl and cover with a damp towel in a draught free area. Leave dough to rise until double the size. This takes about 2 hours, however, if you have a warm kitchen, this may only take 1 hour.
• Punch the air out of the dough and tip on to a lightly flour bench. Divide in to 12 even balls.
• Roll out each ball in to a 5 inch circle. Dust each circle with flour and place on baking paper. Stack circles between the paper sheets. Leave dough to rest for 10 -20 minutes. Be sure you remember to dust the circles on both side, or the dough will stick and you'll have to re-roll and re-rest them.

• Preheat your oven and a baking tray (or pizza stone) to it's highest temperature. Open the oven door, toss your circles on the tray (being careful that they don't fold over) and close the door quickly.
• The pita's will puff up in a few minutes. Give them about a minute after they've puffed up to cook, then remove them with tongs. If they look like they're starting to brown, take them out or they'll go crispy.
  

Repeat with remaining pitas. Allow to cool then place them in a freezer bag and throw in the freezer for convenience.

You could top this off with a yummy fruit dessert. Cook your quinoa in milk, sweeten with a little honey, top with chopped fruit and sprinkle with cinnamon. Delicious!

xx Pandy

“I didn't fight my way to the top of the food chain to be a vegetarian” - unknown