Quinoa Salad with Smoky Lime Dressing

 

Another quinoa recipe! I make quinoa pretty often because I like it a lot more than rice and it is packed with protein (which I am generally lacking since I am a vegetarian). This recipe is even easier than the one I posted previously with black beans and corn - and it only takes about 20 minutes to make!

1 cup quinoa
4 green onions, thinly sliced
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon low-sodium teriyaki sauce or soy sauce
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 canned chipotle pepper in adobo sauce
1 small garlic clove, finely chopped 

Place the quinoa and 2 cups water in a medium saucepan over high heat and bring to a boil.
Lower heat, cover and simmer 15 minutes, or until liquid is absorbed. Stir in the green onions, black-eyed peas, and cilantro.

Puree the remaining ingredients together in a food processor; pour over quinoa and stir to coat with dressing. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Original recipe here 

Chilled Avocado and Cumber Soup

Here's another Tastespotting find - I promise I'm going to branch out soon! I have Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian," and I'm going to start making some recipes from there.

Anyway, I made this chilled soup in honor of springtime, specifically the fact that I can turn off the heat and start to open windows! It was very refreshing and cool, not at all like a winter soup. I didn't think it tasted great before it chilled, but once complete with the diced cucumbers and onion, it was delicious.


Ingredients needed for 8 servings (each about 2/3 cup):

• 1 can (12 fluid ounces) evaporated lowfat 2% milk
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 2 large or 3 small ripe avocados, peeled and dice
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup sliced unpeeled cucumber
• 1/3 cup snipped fresh dill
• Diced cucumbers, finely chopped red onion and chopped fresh dill for garnish (essential!)

Combine evaporated milk and vinegar in small bowl; let stand for 15 minutes.

Place avocados, water, evaporated milk mixture, 1 cup cucumber and 1/3 cup dill in a food processor, and blend until smooth. Season with coarse salt and ground black pepper. Cover; refrigerate for 1 hour (can be made up to 4 hours in advance).

Pour soup into eight small bowls or glasses; garnish with cucumber, red onion and dill.

NOTE: eat this soup within a day or two after making it, since the avocado will cause the soup to turn brown (just like having cut avocado in the fridge)

Original recipe here 

Lemon, lime and garlic shrimps

This recipe has become a favorite of mine and Dave's, and it is really simple, especially if you use frozen shrimp. We usually just make pasta with this dish and put the shrimp dish on top - the pasta tastes really great with all of the olive oil, parsley, and lemon and lime zests.

4 Tbsp Olive Oil
150 g Peeled Large Prawns, thawed if frozen, pat dry
3 Cloves Garlic, peeled and chopped
Zest of 1 Big Lime
Zest of 1 Lemon
½ tsp Chili Flakes
3 Heaped Tbsp Chopped Flat-Leaf Parsley
1 Tbsp Breadcrumbs
Sea Salt to taste
Freshly Ground Black Pepper to taste
1 Tbsp Unsalted Butter

Pasta (I usually use ziti)  
Lemon and lime wedges



Preheat oven to 425˚F.
 
Place the olive oil in a baking dish large enough to fit the prawns in a single layer. Warm the oil in the oven for about 5 to 6 minutes or until the oil is hot.

Meanwhile, toss the prawns with all the ingredients except the butter.

Remove the baking dish from the oven and add the prawns in the hot oil and scatter the butter on top. Return to the oven and bake for another 8 to 10 minutes or until the prawns are just cooked. Season the prawns lightly with sea salt if necessary and serve immediately with lemon wedges on top of the pasta. 

Original recipe here 

Baking FAIL.

So, I got a bit overconfident in my baking abilities and decided to make my FIRST layer cake for a work-friend's birthday.
BAD IDEA. I usually do fine trying new recipes, but this was a whole different process than I've ever tried before. Should have stuck with a plain pan-cake (ha, ha).

I found this great moist chocolate cake recipe on foodess.com, and it looked simple enough. The cake-making part was very easy, but when it came to taking the cakes out of the pans, there was epic failure. The cakes stuck to the bottom of my greased non-stick pans and crumbled everywhere.

I tried to fix the problem by covering everything in frosting, but this didn't work out too well.....

I had to make 2 batches of frosting to cover all of the madness, and by the end I had a counter covered in powdered sugar/cocoa powder/lots of crumbly cake, and a cake that looked like a big mound of I-don't-know-what.

Thankfully, everyone at the office thought the cake was delicious, as did I, but this recipe is going to get another shot. I bought 2 circular cake pans, and I WILL make the layer cake work!!

(frosting recipe here)

Tangerine Olive Oil Cake

 

Another fun excuse to bake: house dinners. My roommates and I were having a house dinner with the couple downstairs, and of course I volunteered to make dessert. I stumbled upon this Tangerine Olive Oil Cake recipe on tastespotting.com, and thought it was worth a try. I was about to tackle this at my apartment without a stand mixer, but thankfully I ended up at home that weekend and used my parents' KitchenAid mixer (this is one of those recipes that you really need it - I generally get by without one). The tangerines were delicious (I used honey tangerines), and I had some juice leftover that I just drank straight. Mmm. This is definitely a great bread recipe to try and it's good for entertaining if you want to impress guests with something they've never heard of. One note: definitely put aluminum foil over the bread when it's about halfway done cooking, because mine ended up bring pretty dark/almost burned at the end.

• 5-6 large tangerines (I used honey tangerines)
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 3/4 tsp kosher salt (or 1 1/2 tsp table salt)
• 5 large eggs
• 2 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 cups mild extra-virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 350º and place rack in middle of oven, removing any racks above. Grease and flour two loaf pans, or one bundt or tube pan.

Finely grate the zest of 3 of the tangerines, and set aside. Squeeze enough of the tangerines to get 1 1/2 cups of juice (this will take 5-6 tangerines). Set juice aside.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.

In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or a large bowl with a hand mixer), beat the eggs on medium-high speed for about a minute. Lower the mixer to medium speed, and slowly add the granulated sugar. Increase speed back to medium-high, and beat until the eggs are thick and pale, about 3 minutes.

On low speed, alternate adding the flour mixture and olive oil, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Mix just until the last bits of flour are combined. Add the reserved tangerine juice and zest, stopping to scrape down the bowl as necessary. Mix just until everything is well-combined; batter will be the consistency of a thick pancake batter.

Pour evenly into 2 loaf pans. Bake for about 1 1/4 hours, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean. Lay aluminum foil over the top of the loaves about halfway through baking, to prevent over-browning.

Remove finished cakes from oven, and transfer to a wire rack for 15 minutes. Remove from pans, and let cool completely.

Tofu Stir Fry

So, I've been making stir fry for a couple years now without a recipe, but even after all the variations I came up with (beans, tofu, every kind of vegetable), I got sick of my once-favorite dish. I found this tofu stir fry recipe, and decided to try it since it has some of my favorite vegetables along with soy sauce and lime juice. It was really easy - the only thing I altered was that I used red chili flakes instead of fresh chilies because I couldn't find the fresh ones at the grocery store. Also - I followed the recipe and only used half of the red pepper, but it definitely would have been okay to use the whole thing.

3 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
12 ounces firm tofu, patted dry, cut in 1/2-inch cubes
3 shallots, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 carrot, cut in matchstick pieces
1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut in 1/2 inch thin strips
1 cup green beans, cut in 1 inch pieces
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh red chilies (or red chili flakes to taste)
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Heat a wok or large skillet over medium-high heat and add 2 tbsp (25 mL) oil. Add tofu and stir-fry for 4 minutes, turning carefully, until golden brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and reserve.

Add remaining oil to wok. Add shallots and garlic and stir-fry for 1 minute. 

Add carrot, red pepper and asparagus and stir-fry for 2 minutes. 

Add soy sauce, lime juice, chilies, sugar and pepper and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.

Return tofu to wok and cook for 1 minute, or until combined and heated through.

Original recipe here

Shout-out for gluten free cookies

 

I like to find any excuse possible to bake, and lately that has mostly been for work meetings (you may think this is sad, but we have a pretty cohesive group working on Data Management for the BP oil spill, and we have fun). This past week we had the developers of our web site visiting, so of course I had to impress them with my baking skills. Per usual, I hit up http://www.tastespotting.com/, and found an easy recipe for flourless peanut butter cookies. I couldn't believe how easy these were, so they made for a fun after-work project. I doubled the recipe and used a whole can of peanut butter (which was a little less than 2 cups), but they turned out deliciously. 

2 cups peanut butter
1 1/3 cup sugar, plus extra for rolling
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs
Chocolate, for drizzling (I used chocolate chips and melted them in the microwave)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium mixing bowl, cream together the peanut butter and sugar. It is much easier to do it by hand than to use a machine; just use a tough spatula. Mix in the baking powder and egg until evenly combined.

Form small balls and roll cookie dough in extra sugar. Place evenly on an ungreased baking sheet and flatten slightly with a fork. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Cool on the baking sheet for at least 5-10 minutes before moving to a cooling rack to cool completely. The cookies will be very fragile and need to harden before they can be moved. Drizzle with chocolate, if desired.