Quinoa white sauce

Today I needed to whip up a fast, toddler (and husband!) friendly dinner in a hurry. I was going to make a cheesy white sauce to mix in some stuffed pasta and frozen veges, but then I realized that we didn't have any flour! I turned to quinoa to save the situation. Is it possible to make a quinoa white sauce? Apparently, yes! Plus, it's gluten free as a bonus for my friends and family who have intolerances.

The secret is to take quinoa flakes and turn them into flour in a coffee grinder (ours is dedicated for spices). In 10 seconds you have a fine, dusty flour that works beautifully in a white sauce.

Ingredients

30g butter
1/2 cup quinoa flakes
1 cup full cream milk
Parmesan and pepper to taste

Method

Grind quinoa flakes in a coffee/spice grinder. Melt butter on a medium heat. Add ground quinoa and stir with a whisk until combined. After 1 minute or so, start adding small amounts of the milk, stirring until the mixture thickens and then continuing until you are satisfied with the texture (you may not want to use a full cup of milk). Add parmesan and pepper to taste.

Add to pasta and steamed vegetables for a fast and delicious dinner. White sauce is the basis of so many delicious recipes. I can't wait to try using this recipe for making chicken pies, roast cauliflower, lasagne and many more!

BBQ Roast Kangaroo

Sunday is a good day to do some work on my PhD. After messing about for the morning I cycled off to the office with my lunchbox full of treats.



Banana cake, figs, banana, honey-encrusted macadamia nuts and apple slices. I took a side jar of yogurt to schlorp over the top of the fruit when I got to work. Yummo!

For dinner Morgan and I made BBQ roast kangaroo. We cooked the mini-roasts by searing the roo on both sides for a couple of minutes and then covering the lid of the BBQ for 25mins on a low heat. Once off the heat wrap in foil and let sit for 10mins before slicing. Cooking times are similar to the same amount of medium-rare beef, but without the damage to the Aussie environment! :)

I served roasted sweet potato and butternut pumpkin in rosemary and olive oil (30mins on 180 degree oven). I made a quick rocket salad with lime juice and olive oil. Plus chickpeas and quinoa on the side.

Ingredients
1 cup quinoa
1 tin chickpeas
2 cups beef stock
3 tbsp sour cream
3 cloves of garlic finely chopped
1 red onion finely chopped
handful of olives finely chopped

method
simmer quinoa, chickpeas 1/2 garlic and stock for 5mins (covered). Add red onion, sour cream and remaining garlic and simmer for 10mins. Take off heat and add olives and pepper to taste.


Serve roast kangaroo with sides, cranberry sauce and Dijon mustard


What you're going to see on this blog is some repetition of ingredients. This is what happens when you're a real person with a finite kitchen and fresh produce.


Some items get used over and over again until they're used up. Sorry if it seems predictable! luckily we get a new box of exciting ingredients each week to experiment with.


Speaking of exciting ingredients. I've begun storing my vegetables inside these crisper snap-lock bags. They let the ethylene out, which helps prevent spoilage. I reuse the same bags over and over again. They really help keep all my produce fresh.

Warm beetroot and quinoa tabouleh

I like the constraints of box living. The lack of choice is actually incredibly freeing. I would prefer someone else choose for me than have to figure it out at the markets. I love inventing food to fit what nature provides. On a slightly more spiritual level, I like to feel the moods of the earth and know her influence on living things. We are lucky to have such plentiful food and I am grateful for it.

Really, I appreciate that farmers are making any produce at all. I tried to grow herbs this summer and whilst they began well, by the end of the flooding rains punctuated by no rain, my own forgetfulness or my cats leaping into them... they're all done for! The sage and tarragon are the only things left and some sort of bug has eaten most of 'em! Heh.

It's an interesting psychological difference between the fearful way I 'choose' produce in the supermarket ("it must be perfect") vs. the joyous way I accept a box of Food from Food Connect ("I trust it will be good"). I can't quite explain it, but there you are. :)

Anyway, tonight I wanted to use the single fresh beetroot that I got in my Gourmet Box this week. I had some parsley left over from last week and limes, so a beetroot and quinoa tabouleh inspired by this recipe was worth trying. I was very excited because I've never used quinoa before. Have you?


Quinoa is grown in Bolivia, but grows in Australia if farmers wanted to develop our industry. ;)


Quinoa has a similar proportion of protein to meat--taking water into account--and remarkably contains a balanced set of essential amino acids. These are the proteins humans cannot manufacture by ourselves. Apparently NASA is rather impressed by this ancient grain (NASA Technical Paper 3422).

Ingredients
1/3 cup quinoa (wash carefully! See the comment from my Boliva-traveling friend)
2/3 cup stock
1 beetroot* grated
1 onion finely chopped (I used white, though red is recommended)
1 tbsp olive oil
big handful of parsley
1/2 lime's worth of juice
1 tbsp aged red wine vinegar
black pepper

Method


Dry roast the quinoa in the frying pan for a minute or two. Add stock and simmer covered on low for 15min. Remove from the heat and let sit for 5mins. Saute onion in olive oil for 10mins or so.


Combine beetroot, parsley, lime juice, vinegar and pepper in a bowl. Beetroot and parsley are both fantastic nutrients, containing all sorts of great antioxidants and vitamins.


Add onion mixture, quinoa and beetroot mix to make a salad. Voila!


Look how crazy the quinoa is! The little grains look like tiny eggs with tails floating off. This stuff is so much tastier (and healthier) than cous cous. Apparently it sprouts fast overnight, releasing even more nutrients.

Plus, this recipe was super-yummy. The textures really pop and it's super fast and easy to make. 20 minutes to noms.

* Ingredients in green come from Food Connect