Quinoa – The Incas weren’t wrong

This past Fatherhood Friday over at dad-blogs.com one of my fellow daddy bloggers used his post to inquire about some helpful recipes that were cholesterol friendly. As a recent diabetic I have struggled with changing how I eat and cook, so I understand his dilemma.

Due to my Italian heritage I love pasta and it has been a struggle to create interesting starches for my meals without using it. I love making risotto – as Emeril would say, it is a real food of love thing, and, as my friend Vinnie would say, making risotto adds half an inch to your biceps. Unfortunately, that workout isn’t enough to calm my blood sugars. Since this whole transformation began we’ve been using more and more whole grains, which definitely need some help in order to remain interesting. That’s why I was excited to find the website barleyfoods.org, specifically for their barley risotto recipe.

While barley would be a great option for a cholesterol friendly side dish, or even as a main dish if you add a protein like chicken to the risotto recipe, it takes a long time to cook unless you’ve got a pressure cooker lying around. So, another good option that I’ve come across is Quinoa (pronounced Keen-Wah). Dubbed the ‘mother of all grains’ by the Incas, Quinoa is high in protein and a good source of dietary fiber. It cooks relatively quickly (12 to 15 minutes) and has a fluffy texture with a mildly nutty flavor.

As with anything I do in the kitchen I usually start out with an existing recipe and modify it to our tastes. We were first introduced to Quinoa in a salad recipe in the Eating for Pregnancy cookbook I bought a while ago. The nice thing about whole grains is that they are kind of like blank canvas and you are limited only by your tastes or imagination.

Here is my recipe for Quinoa Salad, as I have modified from the original. One thing to keep in mind is Quinoa has a bitter natural outer coating that needs to be rinsed off in hot water before you cook it. You can make this a day in advance and it should hold in your fridge for up to three days. So, without further adieu:

Ingredients

1 c. Quinoa, uncooked
½ c. Brown Basmati Rice, uncooked
½ c. diced red or green bell pepper
½ c. shredded carrot
¼ c. sliced leeks
¼ c. flat leaf parsley
2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
¼ c. grated ricotta salata
Juice of one medium orange
Zest of one medium orange
3 tablespoons of rice wine or red wine vinegar
¼ c. extra virgin olive oil
Salt, pepper to taste

Directions

• Prepare the Quinoa and Brown Basmati Rice according to directions on the package
• Toss the Quinoa, rice, bell pepper, carrot, leeks, parsley and mint together in a bowl
• Combine the orange juice, vinegar and olive oil and pour over the salad mixture
• Fold in the ricotta salata and orange zest
• Salt and pepper to taste

As you can see, this is a pretty easy recipe. It is also very much open to interpretation. Want to make it more Mediterranean? Replace the ricotta salata with feta and add some kalamata or black olives. Not a fan of bell peppers? Replacing that and the carrot with some shredded fennel and diced tomatoes is a good alternative.

Whether you want to add grains (millet or amaranth are some good options) or exchange them (wild rice for brown rice, as an example) it is really up to you. One last idea would be to add some mandarin orange segments to make it a little more citrusy.

No matter what you do have fun with it and enjoy.

Tagged as: Barley, barley risotto, Bell pepper, Brown Basmati Rice, cholesterol, Cook, Cooking, diabetes, Incas, Olive oil, Orange juice, Quinoa, Salad, Vinegar, Wine