Sunday, January 20, 2008

Quin on Quinoa*

Last weekend, as an antidote to my ten thousand pounds of baked goods, I did my cooking from Fatfree Vegan. I made the Creamy Herbed Coleslaw with Grape Tomatoes and Quinoa and Red Lentil Cutlets. Yum!



I had half a head of cabbage left over from the previous week's Garden Vegetable and Bean Soup and decided to put it to use in coleslaw. The recipe calls for eight ounces of cabbage. Shredded, my half head made eight cups. For people outside the US, eight cups cabbage = one metric assload. So I brought it with me to the previously mentioned holiday celebration. It turned into a potluck of sorts and one of my friends was nice enough to veganize the recipe she brought (which was awesome and I will definitely make it soon and post all about it). The tomatoes really made the coleslaw into something special. Unfortunately, when I bought them, I didn't realize just how much slaw I'd be making, so I didn't have as many tomatoes as I could have. D'oh! I definitely want to try this again with different vinegars and more tomatoes.

The cutlets are really good, too. I doubled the recipe and it made enough to eat some every weekday, share some with my family on Friday night and still have some left. They'd probably be really good on a bun with some lettuce, tomatoes, pickle and ketchup. Sort of like those "veggie patties" that were the only vegetarian option at some restaurants back in the early 90s. They always tasted good but were disappointing compared to what everyone else was eating. These are not disappointing because you make them yourself.

This was my first time working with quinoa, and now I see what all the fuss is about. It couldn't be easier to make and seems really versatile. And since it's a seed, not a grain or a legume, it's technically kosher for passover (unfortunately, some say it's not because it's processed in plants with regular flour), so I may actually have something to eat this April. Wooha!



* For the unaware, quinoa is pronounced keen-wah. If you didn't know that, you probably thought my name is Quin. Incorrect!

1 comment:

Liz Ranger (Bubble Tea for Dinner) said...

that salad is just gorgeous! (and the linked recipe intrigueing)