Quinoa Risotto

For awhile DH has talked about the "super grain" quinoa and wanted me to cook more of it. For whatever reason the super bag sat in our pantry for a good while half used until I had to put together a vegan-friendly dinner. Enter one of my new favorite sites, Daily Garnish. I hit her up for the veggie burgers I made over the summer as well.

The asparagus and mushroom quinoa risotto is delish and not in a "this is pretty good for vegan" kinda way. I mean like, make this instead of a regular cheese-filled risotto good. Yeah, I know that sounds crazy, but I promise it is worth passing on the dairy.

Yes, it was the first time I've purchased earth balance, and no I'm not putting it on my toast in lieu of the yummy local butter that was delivered last week by Arganica, but it totally does help finish off the risotto.

So in honor of 2012 and more healthy cooking, I give you Emily Malone's (love her recipes and story) Asparagus and Mushroom Quinoa Risotto:


Ingredients (4 servings)

• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1 small yellow or white onion
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 cup dry quinoa
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 bunch asparagus
• 1 tablespoon Earth Balance (or butter)
• salt to taste

Instructions

1. Start by pouring the vegetable broth into a sauce pan and bringing it up to a light simmer. Having hot stock or broth is an important step in making risotto!
2. Next, dice the onion and mushrooms and sauté in olive oil over medium heat. This is one instance where you definitely want to use stainless cookware rather than something non-stick. You want the onions and mushrooms to create some fond and browning on the bottom of the pan. Color = flavor!
3. One the onion and mushroom are browning, add the dry quinoa and stir to coat in the olive oil. Continue to stir and cook over medium high heat for about 3 minutes – just enough to coat the quinoa and toast it a bit.
4. Add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to deglaze the bottom of the pan, and then begin adding the hot vegetable stock to the quinoa one ladle at a time.
5. Add stock and stir continuously over medium heat until most liquid is absorbed. Once absorbed, add another ladle full of stock, and continue to do so for 25-30 minutes total, or until quinoa is cooked and risotto is creamy.
6. In between ladles and stirring, cut asparagus into bite sized pieces. Make sure to trim the woody ends!
7. When you only have 3 or 4 ladles left, add the raw asparagus to your mixture and stir to combine and cook. Continue to cook and stir until almost all liquid is absorbed. Finish by adding 1 tablespoon Earth Balance for a touch more creaminess, and season to taste with salt.

Burger Burger

Vegetables are something I usually prepare to put on burgers, not in burgers. So this weekend when I prepared to host a cook out for a combination of omnivores, vegetarians, and vegans I had to create a different kind of menu.

I wanted to make sure that everyone could enjoy the menu. So our combined efforts includes lots of grilled veggies, gorgeous orzo salad, delicious veggies with hummus and tapenade and chips/salsa. 

I used my small chopper to process the
oats/pumpkins seeds, spice blend, carrots
and black beans.

 Besides the regular burgers, turkey burgers and hotdogs, I attempted my first purposely vegan recipe, black bean burgers. It seemed that most recipes call for a fairly sophisticated spice blend, a vegetable binder, and the beans smashed and whole.

This particular recipe had a bit of a Indian spice profile and the verdict from vegans and omnivores was that it's a keeper.

I found the process of making the burgers simple and intriguing since it's a careful balance of binding the ingredients and adding enough flavor. I'm not giving up meat anytime soon, but I will certainly be exploring more vegan-inspired recipes.

Vegan Bean Burger Recipe from Daily Garnish
Makes 6 burgers.

• 2 cans black beans (rinsed and drained)
• 2 carrots, grated
• 1/2 cup dry rolled oats
• 1/4 cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp coriander
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper

To Prepare:  Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Next, add the oats and pepitas to your food processor and grind until coarsely chopped (they will still be a little chunky).  Let it run for roughly 10 seconds.  Grate the carrots, and then add to your mixture in the food processor.  Add 3/4 of the beans, all spices, and the olive oil.  Once all of this is in the food processor, give it a whir and mix it all together.

Spoon mixture into a mixing bowl and then fold in the rest of the whole, reserved beans.  Wet your hands and then form into 6 medium sized patties.  Place patties on a non-stick baking sheet or into a baking pan, and bake at 300 degrees for 40 minutes, turning once in the middle.  If you want to grill these, pre-bake them for 30 minutes at 300, and then throw them on the grill to reheat and get a little extra browning.