Honey Glazed String Beans & Radish Quinoa

New and interesting dishes have been my goal for the last few nights. Fed up with the same 7 or 8 recipes I make every week, it's been my goal to try new textures and flavors.  After buying our bulk 25 pound box of quinoa, we've been less hesitant to cook with it. While it's one of our favorite staples in the house, buying a small box from the grocery store was costing us around $5+ at two a week so we limited our intake to save some money.  Now, we're free to cook with it as much as we please.

This was a "thrown-together" recipe out of necessity to get rid of some string beans in the fridge and use up a few of the radishes I picked out of the garden this morning. Surprisingly, cooked radishes are a pleasant change from the raw radishes we eat in our salads daily.

Onto the meal:

Ingredients:

1 cup quinoa + 2 cups water (cook per box directions)

1 teaspoon of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

4 large radishes (6 or 7 small), sliced & quartered

1/2 small onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

Bunch of stringbeans

2 teaspoons honey (or to taste)

Juice of 1/2 lemon

2 teaspoons dried parsley

1 teaspoon thyme

2 T crushed walnuts

1/4 cup halved cherry tomatoes

Directions:

1. Cook your quinoa according to package directions. (Usually 2 parts water, 1 part quinoa. Bring to boil, then reduced to low-medium heat for about 20 minutes.)

2. In pan, add EVOO and allow to heat up. Add your radish, onion, and garlic. Allow to cook on medium-high heat for 3-4 minutes, stir every minute.

3. Add stringbeans, cover, turn to low-medium heat and allow to cook for 5-7 minutes. Stir halfway through.

4. Add honey and lemon, and allow to cook for about a minute. Toss in thyme and walnuts. Cover and cook 2 minutes to allow flavors to blend.

5. Toss in walnut and cherry tomatoes.

6. Serve string bean/radish mixture on top of quinoa on a plate. Enjoy!

 

The honey and lemon in this dish add a wonderfully sweet and fresh flavor to what could have been a fairly heavy dish with all this quinoa.  Hopefully this encourages you to explore some diverse and interesting ingredients to change up the taste of some of your dishes!

-Lacey

Quinoa Tabbouleh

Tabbouleh is a tasty traditional Levantine Arab salad made out of fresh veggies like cucumber & tomato and mostly comprised of bulgur.  Bulgur is a quick cooking form of wheat.  This is a slightly different version of the traditional Tabbouleh, replacing the bulgur with some protein loaded quinoa and adding some other fresh flavors.

I make this in bulk at the beginning of the week by making an entire package of quinoa (usually about 3 cups). So, I just double this recipe.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup of quinoa (& 3 cups water for preparing)

3/4 pint cherry tomatoes, halved

1 teaspoon sea salt

juice from 1/2 lemon

1/2 cup fresh mint

1/2 cucumber, diced

1 1/2 T dried parsley (or a few stalks of fresh)

2 cloves minced garlic

1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger

3 Tablespoons - 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (use what tastes right to you without going overboard)

1/2 red onion, diced (or regular onion)

2 carrots, grated

Fresh cracked pepper to taste
1/4 tsp or less of paprika (this is just for a teeny bit of flavor, don't go overboard)

Directions:

1. Prepare the quinoa according to box directions.

2. While cooking, combine all remaining ingredients in a large bowl.

How beautiful are all these colors?!

3. When quinoa is done cooking, allow to cool in refrigerator or freezer. Just don't forget about it. Also, add your bowl of mixed veggies to the fridge.

Quinoa, after it's done cooking.

4. When all is cooled, mix quinoa with all other ingredients. Eat chilled. 

My massive bowl of Quinoa Tabbouleh to last me the week!

Quinoa Tabbouleh is a perfect side, add to a wrap, eat as your lunch, or to bring as your dish for any party. Enjoy!

-Lacey

Quinoa 101

I get a lot of questions about quinoa, why I use it in so many recipes, and why I eat so much of a "grain", when I should really be getting rid of all those "carbs".

Well, instead of writing a lengthy boring blog post about it, I found an incredible video by Health Counselor Dani Spies, whose website is packed with information about some of the most basic ingredients.  Here she'll explain, in detail, that quinoa is not actually a grain (it's closely related to spinach and beets) and how it's a powerhouse of protein and nutrition.  She'll also show you how to cook it (all in under 4 minutes!)