green quinoa

I came in to work this morning to find a big note written on the fridge which read, "One month of university to go. We can ALL do this."

It was uplifting. Last week I was contemplating cutting my losses and withdrawing from my classes, and quite frankly, the only thing stopping me was knowing I'd have to go back and do these classes all over again. So I keep plugging.

Anyways, I have an awesome recipe to share with y'all. Green Quinoa. Paul and I frequently make Green Rice, which is a tasty dish of brown rice cooked with sauteed onions and garlic, and then simmered in a veg broth with roasted seeded jalapenos, and finished with fresh cut cilantro stirred in. Mmmmmm. Back in the fall I snagged a couple of big bags of jalapenos from my favourite organic farmer on the Sunshine Coast, processed them en mass, and froze them in ice cube trays. Now when I get a hankering for the green rice dish, it's as easy as pulling a jalapeno cube out of the freezer and I'm ready to go. Paul loves cilantro, and so buys a bunch a week - more than we can possibly go through - I've decided I need to find a good cilantro pesto recipe (Liminal?) which I can freeze to deal with the excess. Last week as a part of the sustainability fair at UBC, they were selling some produce from the UBC farm, and among other things (purple broccoli, purple flowering broccoli, cabbage) I snagged a bag of organic spinach. Which meant I had 2 bags of spinach at home, again more than we could eat in salads until it started to wilt. What to do with all of that spinach? I contemplated soup, but couldn't find a recipe I liked, and then ultimately stumbled upon another, and somewhat different, green rice recipe. Being the meddler I am I gave it the old switcharoo and made it my own. I subbed in quinoa for the rice, added cubed tofu, and used one of my jalapeno cubes (yes, there was a point to all of those side snippets). So here it is - a protein and amino acid rich, chlorophyll heavy green dinner for everyone.

Green Quinoa:

1 med onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 bunch spinach, washed and stemmed
1 bunch cilantro, washed
2 1/2 cups veg broth
2 jalapenos, 1 seeded*
1 1/2 cups quinoa, washed
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 brick tofu, cubed

*I used one cube of my previously roasted, seeded, and pureed jalapenos, which is roughly equivalent to 2 peppers.

Put spinach, cilantro, jalapenos, and one cup of broth in a blender, and puree to liquefy. I found I had to add the greenery in several installments and needed to add a little more broth to keep things going, but it did become a wonderful bright green liquid in the end. In a large pot, heat oil over medium high heat. Add onions and saute until translucent. Add garlic and quinoa, and saute for a couple of minutes. Add green liquid, and remaining broth. At this point I also tossed in a half a brick of tofu, cubed. Increase heat to high and bring to boil. Once mixture is boiling, cover, reduce heat to low, and let simmer for 15 min. After 15 min turn off the heat, but leave covered and let stand for 10 min. Fluff with fork, and season if desired. Mine needed a tiny touch of salt, but that was it.

So nutritious, so delicious, and so green. I've got green quinoa for lunch today. Mmmmmm.