This post is long overdue but here goes! Plantains are a fruit that look very much like what most of us refer to as a banana. They are actually in the same family, but plantains generally are more starchy and less sweet than bananas. For that reason, they are generally not eaten raw, but are great in cooked dishes. Today we’ll show you a simple way to enjoy plantains, as taught to us by Cheryl Gonsalves, who grew up in Trinidad and and was sweet to invite us to her home to share her love of food with us!
Summary
Preparation Time: 5 min
Total Time: 15 min
Servings: 5 portions
Meal type: Appetizer
Ingredients
5plantains, ripe;
salt
oil
Instructions
1.Peel the plantains. The easiest way is to chop off both ends, cut a slit from one end to the other, and roll the plantain out of the skin.
2.Cut the plantains into 1/2″ slices, on a slight diagonal”
3.Sprinkle a little bit of salt over all the slices to bring out the flavour. 4.Heat oil at ??? high heat in a medium-depth frying pan, making sure that you have enough oil to prevent the plantains from sitting on the bottom. Add the slices carefully, one by one, to prevent any splashing! 5.Flip them gently when they have turned a nice golden brown colour. 6.When they have become golden brown on both sides, remove from the oil and set them in a bowl lined with paper towel to remove the excess oil.
Results
It took very little prep work and it’s hard to resist stealing bites of finished ones while frying the whole batch up! Hope you enjoy this wonderful appetizer as much as we did.
As promised in our recent interview post, we’re sharing with you a recipe from Bal’s Quick & Healthy Indian cookbook by the Spice Goddess, Bal Arneson. With just over one hundred recipes in the book, it was hard to settle on just one, but we were drawn to the Avocado and Chickpea Salad.
This salad is a very interesting alternative to guacamole. The chickpeas, spanish paprika really work well with the avocado. If you are a fan of guacamole, you’ll love this recipe!
Summary
Preparation Time: 20min
Total Time: 30 min
Servings: 4 portions
Meal type: Salad
Cost: $5.25
Ingredients
Dressing
2 tbspolive oil
1 tbsplemon juice
1 tbspfinely chopped ginger
1/2 tspground cardamom; we used whole cardamom and removed the seeds from the pods to crush
1/4 tspground cumin
1/8 tspSpanish paprika
1/8 tspsalt
Salad
4avocados, cubed (save the avocado shells if you plan to serve in it); $4
14 oz canchickpeas, drained and rinsed; $1
1/4 cupgreen onion , finely chopped; $0.25
Instructions
1.To make the dressing, combine the olive oil, lemon juice, ginger, cardamom, cumin, paprika, and salt in a small bowl and mix well. We actually ended up doubling the amount of cumin, paprika, and cardamom because we found it was quite light and wanted to have a bit more of a kick. We suggest following the original recipe and tweaking it to suit your own taste buds!
2.Combine the avocados, chickpeas, and green onion in a large bowl and toss gently. Just before serving, pour the dressing over the salad and toss to thoroughly coat the ingredients.
3.Serve in an avocado shell.
Results
The YouCook team loved this dish! The recipe was straightforward, simple and we put it together in under half an hour from start to finish. It was fresh and had great texture from both the avocado and chick peas, while the spices were a welcome addition.
We found that adding some chili flakes and salt really enhanced the flavours. We will definitely try this with tomato and onion next time since this salad really reminded us of guacamole. We were inspired by the pictures in Bal’s cookbook to serve this salad inside the avocado shell as well. Not only did it look nice, it was a perfect serving size and meant less dishes to be washed.
We spent some time at Central Bistro with Chef Robert Erickson learning more about his delicious vegetarian dish on the Dine Out menu which has been quite a hit that it’s making its way to the regular menu! Grilled Mediterranean Olive Polenta Cakes with Macedonian feta, charred tomato & marinated portobello mushroom in a roasted pepper emulsion and spiced parsley coulis.
The recipe is split up into different parts: the olive polenta cake and roast pepper emulsion sauce. The vegetable sides include: marinated portabello mushroom, blistered tomato, parsley coulis and roasted asparagus.
I didn’t realize that polenta, cornmeal, grits are essentially the same. I have to admit, I am not used to this as an ingredient in any of my cooking so I looked it up. Bulk cornmeal that you find here is typically too fine to be called polenta. Polenta is coarse stone-ground cornmeal. It is traditionally known as peasant food and originated in Italy. It is gluten free, so if you can’t deal with wheat, you might want to try polenta out.
Summary
Preparation Time: 30 min.
Cook Time: 3 hours.
Servings: 8 portions
Meal type: Main
Recipe Rating:
Ingredients for Olive and Polenta Cakes
1/4 cup mixed olives
1/8 cup chopped thyme
1 cup polenta
2 shallots finely dice
4 Tbsp butter
3 cups vegetable stock
1/2 cup cream
1/8 cup flat leaf parsley chopped
Instructions for Olive Polenta Cakes
1. Heat pot and sauté shallots in butter until clear 2. Add olives and stir for 30 seconds. 3. Deglaze with vegetable stock and bring to a boil. 4. Whisk in cornmeal and continue to stir for 10 mins making sure not to let the polenta stick. Chef’s tip: If cornmeal becomes too heavy add a little more vegetable stock. 5. Add cream and continue to stir until until the gritty texture has left the polenta. 6. Finish with salt and pepper to taste 7. Place on parchment covered baking sheet with spatula spread evenly and place another piece of parchment on top. 8. Take a baking sheet the same size and place on top of that then add weight and press for 2 hours in refrigerator. 9. Cut into rounds or sticks of desired size.
Ingredients for Roast Pepper Emulsion
3 red peppers
1 onion, finely diced
5 cloves garlic, finely diced
4 Tbsp thyme, chopped
3 Tbsp oregano, chopped
2 Tbsp rosemary, chopped
1/4 cup white wine
1 Tbsp sugar
1 large can pureed tomatoes
3 Tbsp butter
Instructions for Roast Pepper Emulsion
1. Roast 3 peppers on the grill or in the oven. 2. Place in a bowl and cover with saran wrap for 10 min to steam. 3. Peel skin and remove seeds. 4. Place in a blender and puree . Set aside. 5. Heat up a pan and sauté onions until clear. 6. Add garlic and sweat for 1 minute. 7. Add thyme and rosemary. 8. Deglaze with white wine and sugar. 9. Add pureed tomato and cook on medium heat for 15 minutes. 10. Add pureed roast peppers and cook for 10 minutes. 11. Add oregano and remove from heat. 12. Pour ingredients into a blender and puree. 13. Slowly add butter to finish.
Vegetable Sides
For Central Bistro’s dish, Chef Robert Erickson accompanies it with: 1. Roasted portobello mushroom marinated in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, garlic and thyme for each portion. 2. Oven roasted roma tomatoes marinated in olive oil, maldon salt and fresh cracked black peppers finished on the grill. 3. Salt and peppered grilled (lightly charred) asparagus. 4. Parsley coulis – pureed parsley, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, chili flakes, honey, paprika. 5. Frisse salad with lemon juice and salt.
Serving the dish
1. To serve, preheat oven to 375 degrees. 2. Put the polenta in an oven safe pan, add sauce, a good pinch of macedonian feta and a pinch of parmesan. 3. Reheat for 20 minutes. 4. If the tomato and mushrooms need reheating, do that in a separate pan in the oven. 5. Combine ingredients on plate, finish with a dollop of parsley coulis, balsamic reduction, and frisse salad.
Results
Polenta has regain some popularity amongst chefs lately and it makes for a delicious vegetarian meal. I really enjoyed the red pepper/tomato sauce in this recipe. It works well with the polenta cakes but I can imagine it being delicious with pasta too. Nothing beats accompanying the dish with fresh in-season vegetables like mushrooms, tomatoes, asparagus.
This recipe has a lot of parts to it and it was really time consuming to prepare this dish from scratch. I would definitely recommend to try it out at Central Bistro.
I love Vij’s and having recently gotten to know Vikram and Meeru through interviews, I’ve really developed a great deal of respect for them, their philosophy, their food, staff and restaurants. I was delighted to be invited to come in and cook with Vij’s kitchen staff. We made a vegetarian dish that I absolutely love ordering at Vij’s, the Jackfruit in Black Cardamom and Cumin Masala. In traditional Vietnamese cooking, Jackfruit is a fruit that’s eaten as a snack or dessert. I’ve never attempted to eat young green Jackfruit before. I learned from Vikram Vij that green jackfruit is commonly used as vegetarian meat in India. In fact, his mom used to feed it to him telling him that it was meat until he tried real meat. The texture and thickness of the green Jackfruit allows for it to absorb spices and curries quite easily.
I have to admit that I have not ever shopped for so many Indian spices before. I figure now that I own the Vij’s cookbook, it was time to stock my pantry with Indian spices. I went to Safeway and Save-on-Foods bulk sections and could not find all these spices. I found a great selection of spices at Famous Foods but only found the yellow ripe jackfruit in a can here. I went over to Sunrise market and happened to find the green young jackfruit needed for the recipe.
Video
Watch how it’s done in Vij’s kitchen.
Summary
Preparation Time: 1 hour (dry the jackfruit, deep fry jackfruit)
Cook Time: 45 min
Servings: 6 servings
Cost: $29.60 – $4.93 per serving.
Meal type: Main
Recipe Rating:
Ingredients
*Note: I’m going to include the cost of the entire packages of spice to give you an idea of how much it costs to get started in Indian cooking. The bad news is that it’s pretty expensive when all things are added up. The good news is that these spices will be required in many Indian dishes.
3 cans of young green jackfruit – $6.09
6 black cardamom pods – $1.49*
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 Tbsp cumin seeds – $2.59*
1 cup finely chopped onion (1 large onion) – $0.50
1 Tbsp chopped garlic – $0.10
6-8 whole dried red chilies (broken in half with seeds) – $2.29*
2 cups crushed tomatoes – $2.50
1/2 Tbsp ground black mustard seeds – $1.69*
1 tsp ground fenugreek seeds – $2.29*
1 tsp turmeric – $1.99*
1 tsp mexican chili powder – $2.59*
1 tsp paprika – $1.99
1 tsp ground cumin – $1.50
1/2 Tbsp ground coriander – $1.99
1 Tbsp salt
1 cup water
6 cups canola oil for deep frying
Preparation Instructions for Jackfruit
1. Line 2 baking trays with dry tea towels. 2. Place jackfruit on the tea towels for 30 minutes to drain. I drained both kinds of jackfruit (green and ripe) to compare how both absorb the curry and which tastes better. If you want to stay authentic to Indian cuisine, use the young green jackfruit. I found that the ripe yellow jackfruit that I’m used to is a lot sweeter and I like it a lot but it might be too sweet for a savoury curry dish.
You can continue on to make the masala while the jackfruit is drying then return to the next step after the masala is put together. 3. The jackfruit should now be drained and ready for deep frying. Line a baking tray with paper towel. 4. Deep fry the jackfruit on high heat for 5 minutes. Chef’s tip: You can tell if the oil is ready if you drop a small piece of jackfruit in and it immediately floats to the top. 5. Scoop out jackfruit and cool for 15 min.
Instructions for Masala
1. Break black cardamom pods, remove the seeds and discard the pods. 2. Heat a pan with oil on medium-high heat for 1 minute. 3. Add cumin seeds and fenugreek seeds, cook for 3 seconds or until it sizzles. 4. Add onions and sautee for 8-10 minutes until brown. 5. Add garlic and broken dried chilies and sautee for 2 minutes. 6. Add tomatoes. I used a can of Hunt’s Crushed Tomato and found it to be of a much thicker consistency than when we were cooking in Vij’s kitchen. It looked a lot more like a spaghetti sauce than curry so I had to stir and add in a cup of water before it looked as watery as the one in the restaurant. This is in addition to the water called for in this recipe to be added in step #10. There’s probably another brand of crushed tomatoes that is not so thick. 7. Add the rest of the spices: black mustard seeds, turmeric, mexican chili powder, paprika, ground cumin, ground coriander and salt. 8. Stir well and reduce to medium heat. 9. Stir regularly for 10 min until oil separates and masala glistens. 10. Stir in water. 11. Turn off heat and cover the pan. 12. Stir jackfruit into masala gently so that the pieces do not break. 13. Turn the heat back to medium. 14. Once the masala is boiled, mix and reduce the heat to medium low. 15. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes and remove the lid to avoid over cooking it. 16. Serve immediately.
Results
I remember having this dish for the first time at Vij’s and our whole table argued if it was pork or beef or jackfruit. This is definitely a great (and healthy) substitute for meat which does not taste like tofu. I think that if I had more time, I would soak the jackfruit in the curry for 30 min before serving to get it to absorb more curry flavour. Both kinds of jackfruit tasted really good in the dish. We served the dish with basmati rice and naan. It was a hit – between the 5 of us, we finished off the entire pan of jackfruit masala.
I will definitely try to make other curries with jackfruit instead of meat. I’m so happy that I have all the spices now which provide a good basis for more Indian dishes to come!
I went to visit Darby’s since it was one of the deals ($18) that stood out in the Vancouver Dine Out listing. Darby’s has always been the neighbourhood pub to go to to watch hockey games but I never heard anything about the food here. Darby’s has been undergoing major changes to their food menu, spear headed by Chef Alex Rotherham.
I met Chef Alex Rotherham and tried his Cottage Salad and Hangover Burger (both on the Dine Out menu!) and was thoroughly impressed by how all the sauces – vinaigrette, salsa, hot sauce – were made in house and how creative and passionate Chef Alex is about food!
The burgers have rectangular 100% beef chuck patties made in-house. Kudos to Chef Alex for coming up with the shape, both to fit in a ciabatta bun meant for sandwiches and to subtly show customers that the patty aren’t mass-produced. Stay tuned for how to make the Darby’s hangover burger in another post.
It was great to hear from Chef Alex about his experiences at Macaroni Grill, opening his own restaurant, and frequent travels to London. Alex is really bright and creative and is using his skills to enhance restaurant menus by keeping things simple and fresh. His word of advice for new home chefs is to keep it simple. Use no more than 4 or 5 ingredients and don’t try making complicated things like soufflés until you’re ready.
I know it’s a little odd to be coming to the bar and ordering the Cottage Salad, but you must try this one – broccoli, chickpeas, cottage cheese, cranberries, and salsa prove to be a healthy and tasty combination. It might balance out that beer you’re drinking. Don’t take my word for it – try it as part of Dine Out…or try making it at home first because we got the recipe for you below! Combining the salad is the easy part – making the individual ingredients might take some time. Chef Alex makes the cottage cheese, salsa and herb vinaigrette from scratch and has been kind enough to show us how. In case it’s too time consuming, you can always buy these things at the grocery store. Just keep in mind how much sodium and preservatives are in the store-bought version versus making it at home with fresh ingredients!
Here’s a video of Chef Alex making the Cottage Salad:
Summary
Preparation Time: 10 mins
Cook Time: 5 mins (blanching) The times are assuming that the chick peas are cooked, and salsa, cottage cheese and herb vinaigrette are already made. See the sub-recipes for how long those take.
Servings: 1 large salad entree
Meal type: Side or Entree
Recipe Rating:
Ingredients for Salad
2 cups (~200g) broccoli
1/4 cup cooked chickpeas
1 Tbsp of sun dried cranberries Chef’s tip: Sun dried and dried/dehydrated cranberries are not the same – get sun dried if you can. You can blanch cranberries before serving too.
1. Bring a pot of water to boil. 2. Put broccoli florets into water for 15 seconds. 3. Remove and soak in cold water immediately. This is how to blanch the broccoli so that it’s cooked but still crunchy. 4. Put all ingredients in a salad bowl and mix evenly. Try not to overcoat the salad with the dressing.
Results
We have yet to make this recipe at home and regret that we don’t have pictures of each of the ingredients in the salad but wanted to share the recipe with you for the start of Dine Out. We did get to try the cottage salad at Darby’s after Chef Alex demonstrated it and it was really good. The broccoli, chick peas, salsa, cottage cheese, and vinaigrette give the salad a lot of different textures and flavours that all work together. We could see this becoming part of our weekly meals!
Below are recipes for each of the home made ingredients to the salad provided by Chef Alex Rotherham.
Home made Cottage Cheese
I didn’t realize how simple it is to make cottage cheese at home. Chef Alex informed me how much preservatives and salt is added to the cottage cheese you buy in the grocery store. He wanted to experiment with making cheese last year and created this salad to go with the cheese – these instructions look so easy! Make sure you get skim milk, not whole milk – whole milk has chemicals that specifically don’t allow it to separate. I haven’t tried this yet, but will soon.
This cheese will last 2 weeks if kept refrigerated.
Ingredients for Cottage Cheese
4L of skimmed milk Chef’s tip: ONLY use skim milk
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup vinegar
1 tsp of sea salt
Instructions for Cottage Cheese
1. Set up a mixing bowl over a pot of boiling water. 2. Put salt and milk into the mixing bowl. 3. Heat milk to 80°C. The milk must reach this temperature but be careful not to go any hotter than that because it will scorch. 4. When it reaches that temperature, slowly add lemon juice and vinegar. 5. Gently stir with a rubber spatula. 6. It will take a few seconds for the milk to separate and cheese to form a large mass, stop stirring and remove from heat. Note: the liquid will all turn yellow. This is normal. 7. Allow curds to settle to the bottom of the pan (about 5 minutes) 8. Strain off the liquid. This can be used for cream soups and cream sauces. 9. Place curds into a fine strainer or several layers of cheese cloth. 10. Cool the cheese in the refrigerator for 25-30 minutes. 11. Once fully formed, turn out onto cutting board and cut into small cubes at 1oz per serving.
Fresh Herb Vinaigrette
Home-made vinaigrettes don’t last very long, but they are surely more flavourful, fresh and don’t have all the salt and preservatives like the ones that are store bought. If fresh herbs are in season, it is definitely cheaper to make this at home, not to mention more rewarding.
This makes a 500mL (16oz) bottle of dressing.
Ingredients for Vinaigrette
2 cups of canola oil
1 cup (40g) of basil
1/2 cup (20g) of arugula
1 1/2 cup (60g) of parsley
2 tsp of honey
1/6 tsp of cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp of sea salt
1/2 cup of vinegar
Instructions for Vinaigrette
1. Combine all ingredients, except for vinegar, in a blender. 2. Blend and slowly pour vinegar while blending. 3. Transfer into bottle and store in the fridge.
Fresh Salsa
This recipe from Darby’s also uses a home-made hot sauce recipe, which isn’t provided. I find that store bought salsa is either never hot enough or too hot for my taste so I do enjoy making my own salsa. You can also make it as chunky as you’d like.
This recipe will yield about 2.5 cups of salsa.
Ingredients for Salsa
1 can (2 cups, 14.5oz) Diced tomatoes
1 medium onion (1 cup) diced red onions
6 tbsp chopped parsley
2 tsp hot sauce
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
Instructions for Salsa
1. Combine all ingredients into a stainless steel mixing bowl. 2. Mix well and transfer into a container to refrigerate.
During Winterlicious, YouCook checked out Four for lunch and was pleasantly impressed with the Tofu Enchilada. I’ve had very authentic enchiladas in Mexico and San Diego and always thought that meat was an essential part of an enchilada – whether it be ground beef or chicken or pork. The other essential part of an enchilada is the cheese, guacamole, sour cream! Which resulted in me never ordering an enchilada if I was watching what I was eating. Well…that was the case until I tried Chef Matt Rosen’s Enchilada. Actually Melody ordered it and I stole a big piece.
The inside of this vegetarian enchilada include tofu, black beans, corn, tomatoes. The sauce was tomato based. It was served with a Tomatillo Pico de Gallo Salsa and Jalapeno Crema and some Pepperjack cheese. I modified it at home with the ingredients that I could find and it was still delicious. For example, I couldn’t find a Tomatillo anywhere so I used vine tomatoes nor did I have time to make the Jalapeno Crema (Here’s Bobby Flay’s version ) and decided to serve it with strawberry yogurt.
There are essentially 3 recipes in this post – the enchilada filling, sauce and salsa. If you follow the recipe like I did, you’ll find yourself with enough filling for 20 7″ enchiladas – enough to feed a family of 2 for 5 days. Right now the filling is in my fridge, but I’m tempted to roll all of them and freeze them since I don’t plan on eating 1 or 2 a day for the next 10 days. The problem with making less than this serving size is that you’ll end up using only some of your canned beans, tomatoes, chipotle, tofu, etc.
It took a few tries at several grocery stores to find everything that these recipes required. Putting everything together wasn’t as difficult as the grocery shopping experience. I am glad I spent the time to make it.
Summary
Preparation Time: 1 hour Servings: 20 enchiladas Meal type: Main
Recipe Rating:
Ingredients for Enchilada Filling
¼ cup + 1 ½ tsp Vegetable oil I used 1/4 cup of Olive oil
0.454 kg Tofu, diced I used 1 piece in a standard package of medium firmness tofu
2 ¼ cups Canned black beans I used the entire can of black beans
1 ¾ tsp Ground cumin
1 ¾ tsp Garlic powder
1 ¾ cups diced red onions
¾ tsp Mexican chili powder I used chili flakes since I didn’t have Mexican chili powder
1 tbsp Minced garlic I used 3 cloves of garlic
¾ cup Frozen corn kernels I used 1/3 can of corn kernels
Canned chipotle, pureed Unfortunately I couldn’t find canned chipotle and used 1 fresh chili pepper instead
6 cups Canned tomatoes (whole or diced) I bought one large can of whole tomatoes
1 ¾ tsp Onion powder I only had garlic powder and used this instead
Procedure for Enchilada Filling
1. Heat oil in pot. 2. Cook garlic until brown. 3. Add red onions and cook for 5 min or until lightly browned. 4. Add chipotle, cumin, garlic, chili and onion powders and cook for 2 min. 5. Add all remaining ingredients and cook for 10 min. I unfortunately put in some liquid from the tomato can and black bean can. I had to drain this out. My advice is to drain the ingredients of the can beforehand 6. Remove from pot and allow to cool.
Ingredients for Enchilada Sauce
½ cup Vegetable oil
3 tbsp All-purpose flour
¾ tsp Mexican chili powder I used chili flakes since I didn’t have Mexican chili powder
½ tsp Ground cumin
½ tsp Garlic powder
½ tsp Onion powder I only had garlic powder and used this instead
3 cups Water
2 cups Tomato sauce
1 tbsp + ½ tsp Salt
Procedure for Enchilada Sauce
1. Heat oil in pot over medium heat. 2. Add spices and flour and cook for 2 min, stirring constantly. 3. Add water and tomato sauce, bring to a boil while stirring constantly. 4. Cook at a low heat and simmer for 5 min until sauce has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon. 5. Remove from pot and allow to cool.
Ingredients for Tomatillo Pico de Gallo Salsa
1 ¼ cup Tomatillo, diced I could not find tomatillo so I used 1 red vine tomato instead
2 tbsp Green onion, sliced
2 tsp Jalapeño-seeded, chopped I used half of a Jalapeño pepper
1 ¼ tsp Coriander
½ tsp Salt
3 tbsp Lime juice I used the juice from half a lime
½ tsp Sugar
Procedure for Tomatillo Pico de Gallo Salsa
1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl. 2. Store in fridge until ready to use.
2 tbsp Jalapeño crema I did not have sour cream at home but had some yogurt. I decided to use this instead and it did the trick of providing a creamy/milky taste
Procedure for Enchilada
1. Preheat oven at 450°F. 2. Using a ladle, lightly coat the bottom of a baking dish with sauce. 3. Lay tortillas on a flat surface and evenly distribute filling in each tortilla. 4. Roll tortilla so it is in cigar shape and the filling is evenly distributed. 5. Place rolled enchiladas in the baking dish on top of the sauce. Chef’s Note: line multiple rolls in dish until full, layering sauce and cheese overtop accordingly. 6. Ladle a small amount of sauce over the middle section of the rolled enchilada and sprinkle cheese over mid-section. 7. Cover baking dish with foil and bake at 450°F for 12-15 min or until enchiladas are browned on the edges. 8. Place on plate, and garnish with the jalapeño crema and salsa.
Results
I really enjoyed making this dish. I’ve got to admit, it was a little intimidating for me to go get all the ingredients and not being able to find everything. Spending the hour on this dish meant that I had lunch for the entire week and more. I’ve eaten the enchilada with regular salsa and sour cream on another day. I pair it with a spinach salad. It’s a great dish and I’m so happy to know that for something so flavourful, theres are not that many calories in this dish!
I never realized just how great quinoa is until I was introduced to Patricia Green and Carolyn Hemming’s incredibly healthy cookbook: Quinoa 365: The Everyday Superfood . Since quinoa can be found as seeds or grains, or as quinoa flour for baking, it is extremely versatile. Not only can you serve it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner; you can also serve it in your desserts.
I’m going to write a short blurb about its nutritional value just because I am so impressed with how much is packed into these little grains. Quinoa is high in protein and fiber, which is something we all know we need more of. They are high in amino acids and also in vitamins and minerals (such as riboflavin, calcium, vitamin E, iron, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, folic acid, and beta carotene). If you search for “Quinoa” on the USDA website, you will find an extensive list of what it offers.
The Quinoa and Lentil Stew that I chose to make was both simple and flavourful. It’s perfect for those quick weeknight meals. And for the meat lovers out there, you really don’t miss the meat in this dish… Trust me. It’s just too tasty to think about anything else.
Summary
Preparation Time: 15 min
Cook Time: 20 min
Servings: 4 to 6
Meal type: Main
Cost: $7.58 or $1.90 per serving (based on a yield of 4 servings)
Recipe Rating:
1/2 cup Quinoa ~ $2.45
1/2 cup Red Lentils ~ $0.75
4 cups Vegetable or Chicken Stock ~ $1.00
1 cup Water
1 1/2 cups Sliced Carrots ~ $1.00
1 cup Diced Red Onion (approximately 1) ~ 0.85
2 tsp Minced Fresh Garlic ~ $0.18
1 tsp Ground Cumin
1 tsp Ground Coriander
1/4 tsp Salt
1 cup Diced Red Bell Pepper (approximately 1) ~ $1.35
2 tbsp Finely Chopped Fresh Cilantro
1. Combine the quinoa, lentils, stock and water in a large saurcepan and bring to a boil. When quinoa is cooked, it will triple in volume. Keep this in mind when you choose which pot to use. 2. Reduce to a simmer, cover and cook for 10 minutes. 3. Add the carrots, onion, garlic, cumin, coriander and salt and cook for 5 minutes. Since I love thyme so much, and happened to have some in my fridge, I added about 4-5 sprigs of fresh thyme along with the other seasoning. I also skipped out on the salt since I used store-bought chicken stock, which already has a considerable amount of sodium.
4. Add the red pepper and cook for 5 more minutes.
5. Add the cilantro and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Serve immediately. Since I added thyme to the stew, I decided to skip out on the cilantro. I found the flavour to be perfect for me, so I did not need to adjust.
Results
It was surprisingly tasty. I did not expect to enjoy it so much since it’s also very healthy. Patricia Green and Carolyn Hemming really make the healthy experience a yummy one too.
I made this again recently because I wasn’t feeling well, and it was so comforting. This time, it was a double batch! Although the recipe says that this dish needs to be served immediately, it also tastes great when you reheat it the next day.
Before the movie Ratatouille came out, I had no idea what the dish was. After the movie, the name stuck with me but I never did look up how to make it or what the story behind it was. During my 6 month Vegetarian cooking adventures, a number of people told me to make Ratatouille but again I never did! Well finally, I was sent the book, Chef at Home with Michael Smith and the page appeared before me – I absolutely need to get to the bottom of this Ratatouille curiosity.
So the first impression was hey, this is a fancy french name for a veggie stir fry dish. I’ve absolutely made this before! Although I don’t think I ever used the exact combination of vegetables, peppers and herbs as called for in the recipe. So I learned that there’s different schools of thought about how traditional Ratatouille is supposed to be made. One way is to saute all the vegetables together. However Julia Child and of course Michael Smith in the recipe I followed is to saute groups of vegetables separately and layer it. Also, Michel Guerard came up with a variation called Confit Byaldi which replaced the peppers with mushrooms. The major advancement was instead of using rough cut cubes of vegetables, Guerard used thin slices. Then last but not least, Thomas Keller modified this Confit Byaldi to demonstrate to the producer of Pixar’s Ratatouille how to make this dish! The recipe for the version in the movie can be found here with pictures or from the NY Times. I will have to make this dish again following that recipe!!
But I digress. Back to Michael Smith’s Ratatouille. The vegetables are cut into 1 inch thick chunks. And there is no baking involved in his recipe – unlike the ones I had found online! Perfect.
Summary
Preparation Time: 30 min
Cook Time: 30 min
Servings: 4-6
Meal type: Main
Cost: $9.37 (It fed 2 people + 4 or 5 meals in the next few days)
Recipe Rating:
Ingredients
1 eggplant – cut into 1-inch (2.5cm) chunks – $2.07
1 zucchini – cut into 1-inch (2.5cm) chunks – $0.43
1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded and cut into 1-inch chunks – $1.14
1 green bell pepper, cored, seeded and cut into 1-inch chunks – $0.81
1 onion, sliced – $0.64
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped – $0.50
3 garden ripe tomatoes – cut into 1-inch chunks. – $1.78
Alternatively he suggests using 1 can of whole tomatoes.
1 bay leaf
A few sprigs of fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon of dried thyme
1 bunch of fresh basil, chopped – $2.00
1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
Olive oil
Sea salt and pepper
Instructions
1. Chop all the vegetables up separately. 2. Heat a skillet with olive oil on high heat. 3. Saute the eggplant and zucchini stiring and tossing until they are golden brown and tender. About 10 minutes. 4. Set the eggplant and zucchini into a large bowl. 5. Turn down the heat a little and add more olive oil. 6. Add the bell peppers and cook until they are tender. About 5 min. 7. Add the peppers to the large bowl of vegetables. 8. Add more olive oil and sautee the onions until they are soft. About 5 min. 9. Add garlic and continue for a few more minutes. 10. Lower the heat (to low) and add tomatoes, bay leaf, thyme and simmer until the mixture thickens. About 10 min. 11. Add all the other vegetables back in. And simmer until everything is heated through. Add salt and pepper. 12. In the end, stir in fresh chopped basil and balsamic vinegar.
Quick Notes
I have never made a stir fry this way, where I separate the vegetables! What a great idea. I find that anything cooked with tomatoes will turn out soggy. This way all the vegetables get their chance at cooking at their own pace and not cross contiminated with the other juices until the end. I will start to use this technique in my cooking when there are many vegetables all with different cooking times.
I didn’t have a bay leaf and thyme but I can say it was still delicious without. I can bet that there’ll be more flavours if I had added it.
Variations
Michael Smith’s book even mentions that “There are as many ways to make ratatouille as there are cooks, all with the same basic group of ingredients. The easiest method is to simply pile everything into a stockpot and simmer until tender. While this is a perfectly appropriate way to make a vegetable stew, it’s not the tastiest way. For maximum flavour try it this way”. I completely agree!
He also suggests you can make ratatouille with freshly made basil pesto, fresh oregano, sliced green onions or parsley. For a more Mediterranean flavour, try adding lots of kalamata-style black olives or artichoke hearts. You can also grill the eggplant, zucchini and peppers. This is definitely a good base recipe to start experimenting from.
Results
Wow, this simple easy to follow recipe really excites me because there’s so many possibilities with this base of ingredients. I’m going to definitely experiment with this recipe for the years to come. Next time I’m going to try Thomas Keller’s version with the thin cut vegetables instead so I can say I cooked the same dish as the movie
Remix
I’m not sure if anybody else thought of this – it probably has been done before. But I made Ratatouille and Bo Luc Lac as described in a previous blog post. What a GREAT combination of vegetables and meat. I mean the flavours of the vegetables really balanced out the meaty beef. If you’re looking for a truly fusion meal, try this out! I ate this for a few days and each time, I couldn’t believe how well it went together.
#gFoodie Seems like organic food will likely not ever be as cheap as non-organic. The good news is that it's getting easier to get organic.03:41:44 PM January 14, 2012from TweetDeck
Although I don’t think I ever used the exact combination of vegetables, peppers and herbs as called for in the recipe. So I learned that there’s different schools of thought about how traditional Ratatouille is supposed to be made. One way is to saute all the vegetables together. However Julia Child and of course Michael Smith in the recipe I followed is to saute groups of vegetables separately and layer it. Also, Michel Guerard came up with a variation called 
