Healthy quinoa recipes that you can try at home

The nutrition-rich quinoa, considered as one of the healthiest foods, has now made its way into Mumbai's restaurant menus, as well. Soma Das looks at why it matters and how to include it in your diet

Quinoa Salad

For quinoa preparation
>> 50 gm quinoa
>> 70 ml orange juice
>> 70 ml water
Method
>> In a sauce pan, add orange juice and water. Bring to boil. Add quinoa and cook till it turns a translucent strain. Let it cool and store in the refrigerator.

For semi dried
tomato preparation
>> 50 gm tomatoes
>> 5 gm garlic
>> 5 gm thyme
>> 1 gm rock salt
>> 1 gm black pepper
Method
>> Cut tomatoes in wedges and de-seed it. Now, lay them on the oven and sprinkle rock salt, thyme, black pepper and add the garlic slice. Bake at 150 degree celsius for 30 min. Take it out and let it cool. Store it in the refrigerator.

Assemble
>> 10 gm quinoa (cooked)
>> 10 gm French beans (blanched)
>> 10 gm zucchini (sliced)
>> 10 gm broccoli (blanched)
>> 10 gm carrots (sliced)
>> 10 gm tomato (semi-oven dried)
>> 10 gm red bell pepper
>> 10 gm apple (sliced)
>> 10 gm Feta cheese
>> 5 gm palm heart
>> 2 gm black olive dust
>> 5 gm pine nut
>> 2 ml olive oil
>> 2 ml lemon
>> 1 gm salt
>> 1 gm black pepper
Method
>> Grill zucchini and carrots. Blanch French beans and broccoli and take it out in ice water. Now, arrange all the ingredients on the serving plate. Drizzle olive oil and lemon juice. Sprinkle salt and black pepper. And serve immediately.

Dimsum with Quinoa and Spinach

Dimsum with Quinoa and Spinach. Pic/Kaushik Thanekar

Ingredients For the filling
>> 75 gm quinoa
>> 1/2 a bundle spinach
>> Few cloves of garlic
>> Soy sauce (to taste; shouldn’t exceed 1 tbsp)
>> 1 chopped Bird’s eye chilli
>> Salt to taste    
>> 1/2 tsp sugar
>> 1 tbsp olive oil for the coating
>> 200 gm flour (can use a mix of wheat and refined flour as well in a 30:70 ratio)
>> A cup of water
>> A pinch of salt

Method
>> Soak the quinoa in water, ideally for 30 minutes before you start cooking the same.
>> Take double the quantity of hot water as quinoa and cook on a slow flame for 15 minutes. Quinoa quadruples after cooking. Hence, you don’t need a lot.
>> Add some salt while cooking and keep it aside.
>> In a pan, heat up olive oil. Add the chilli and garlic and sauté for a minute. Add soy sauce, salt, sugar and chopped spinach and let the water dry. Add the quinoa and sauté for a couple of minutes. The filling is ready.
>> Make a dough with ingredients for the pastry and keep aside for 30 minutes, covered with a cling film.
>> Make small balls with the dough and roll. Make desired shapes using the filling, a half moon being the easiest.
(like a ravioli).
>> Steam it for 4 to 5 minutes.
>> Serve with soy sauce.
Recipe courtesy: Lemon Leaf, Bandra.

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