Southwestern Quinoa
Quinoa is back, baby. I hadn’t cooked it in a few months, as I had made myself a little sick of it by making the curried quinoa recipe I wrote about back in September. But I recently cleaned up the shelf where I store my bulk grains and moved some of the ones I hadn’t used in a while up to the front to encourage me to cook with them.
Encouraged I was, but also stymied. The curry dish had been my first real quinoa success, and while I still wasn’t ready to eat any more of it, I didn’t have any other ideas. So I turned to our good friend the internet and began scouring for ideas. In addition to discovering the existence of a quinoa-focused cookbook called Quinoa the Supergrain, I found a number of recipes focused around tomatoes and black beans.
I decided to take this idea and run with it, making a few additions and changes of my own…
Most of the recipes I read called for the quinoa to be cooked on its own and then the tomatoes and beans to be added in making the dish like a salad. But I wanted to really flavor the quinoa, so I added in the tomatoes with the cooking liquid so that the grain would absorb their juice. I also added in corn, salsa, and hot sauce, because I really like those things.
One of the great things I found about this dish was that it’s as good cold as it is warm. Squeeze a wedge of lime over a cold bowlful and toss, and you’ve got a great lunch.
Please note that the recipe outlined below makes enough to feed eight people, probably with a fair amount left over. I ended up freezing a bunch, and I’m still working my way through what I didn’t. You could very easily (and probably should) cut the recipe in half.
But I’m not sick of it yet. This one is definitely getting added to my quinoa arsenal, which will hopefully be big enough soon that I can avoid getting burned out on any one dish.
Southwestern Quinoa
2 cups quinoa
1 large (28 oz.) can tomatoes
2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 bag frozen corn
1 large onion
4 cloves garlic
cumin
cayenne pepper
salsa
hot sauce
limes (optional)
1. Rinse quinoa very thoroughly in at least three changes of water, and until the water runs almost completely clear.
2. Chop onion and garlic and saute in a large saucepan until soft and golden. Add quinoa and saute for 2 minutes.
3. Add can of tomatoes, then fill the same can with water and add that as well. Then add cumin, cayenne, and hot sauce to taste. Stir. Bring to boil, stir again, then reduce heat to simmer. Cover and cook until most of the liquid is absorbed, about 10-15 minutes. Quinoa is not as finicky as rice, so don’t worry about taking of f the lid and checking on it occasionally.
4. When there’s just a little liquid left, add in the beans, corn as salsa. Stir and cook until the last of the liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat.
5. Serve with limes.
I think I ODed on quinoa about five years ago…I would make vats of it and take it to work for lunch all week. I haven’t eaten much of it since, but I’ve been seeing some nice looking recipes for it around lately, so it may be time to revisit this supergrain…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XliMny3AvnE
Oh man…in Chile there’s a typical dish called “pastel de choclo” which is like a sweet-corn casserole full of meat, so I could never eat it. Then in a restaurant called El Tercer Ojito up in the northern city of Iquique I stumbled upon a vegetarian variation of said dish, called “pastel de quinoa.” It was made with quinoa instead of corn. I’ve never been able to replicate it but it involved spinach, almonds, and feta cheese. If you could invent that or create it or somehow track down that recipe, I would be indebted to Food Junta for ever.