Meatless Monday: Peanut-Broccoli Stir-Fry

Sorry to have neglected my MM posting, but the holidays were a complete blur. We didn't even travel for the holiday this year, but it still seems like we were busy non-stop. I'm afraid to admit that there was plenty of meat-eating done over the course of those weeks (e.g., on Christmas Eve we had the traditional Italian-American "Feast of the Seven Fishes"), but we did have plenty of vegetarian dishes too. This next recipe is one of those dishes.

Peanut-Broccoli Stir-Fry
Recipe

We were out of brown rice, so we used quinoa, which was great because I prefer quinoa anyway. It was quick and easy to throw together and it was pretty tasty too. We made it just this past week after all the holiday mayhem had quieted down. It was nice to have a light, healthy dish after all the indulging that had been going on since Thanksgiving (see previous post).

Speaking of indulging . . . I stepped on the scale at the doctor's office the other day. Woo, what a bad idea! There was the evidence of my indulging and not exercising all year staring me back in the face. I won't share the number with you, but I will say this - it was SOBERING.

I knew my pants weren't fitting very well lately, but I had no idea how out of hand things had gotten. Let's just say I've officially stepped outside the "healthy" zone for my height. Not far outside, mind you, but still not cool. I was pretty bummed about finding this out, but the timing is actually good. I was poised to set my New Year's resolutions anyway, so I just added one more to the list. What that means is that I'll be being extra diligent about finding low-fat and low-calorie recipes to eat in 2010 - and I'll be sure to share the vegetarian ones with you!

Did you make any special vegetarian dishes for the holidays? Please share!

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Meatless Monday: Garlic-Toasted Quinoa with Vegetables

A couple of weeks ago I introduced you to a quinoa dish I like a lot. This week, I thought I'd introduce you to another quinoa dish that involves a different preparation method, the results of which produce a very different and delicious flavor. The preparation method? Toasting.


Garlic-Toasted Quinoa with Vegetables
Recipe (bottom of the page)

As with the risotto dish I highlighted here before, this is a dish that requires some attentive stirring and patience, so make sure you're in the mood for that before you embark. This is also a dish with which you need to be careful with measurements. If you use too much oil to toast your quinoa, it will never absorb all the vegetable broth when you steam it later. I learned that the hard way and had to artfully spoon excess vegetable broth out of the pot. The result was a bit more oily than it was supposed to be but still yummy.

You can also substitute the veggies they suggest for others you might prefer. For instance, they suggest you can use either spinach or baby chard. I myself swapped out broccoli for asparagus, each an equally hearty green stalk vegetable. And I'm assuming the recipe writer's choice to use shiitake mushrooms was just to keep the focus of the dish Asian. But if you're being frugal, I don't think it would hurt the recipe much to switched them out for more reasonably-priced button mushrooms.

Something I might try if I make this again will be putting a few dashes of soy sauce into the vegetable broth in which I steam the quinoa instead of seasoning it with it at the end. I think that might be an interesting way to subtly infuse the quinoa with the soy sauce flavor. Of course, the advantage of doing it at the end, as the recipe suggests, is that you can just put the bottle on the table and allow those eating to decide how much they want.

Options, options, options. The same recipe can yield so many different results with a little tweaking. Go head, be adventurous and make each recipe your own!

Got any favorite vegetarian or vegan recipes?? Please share!

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Meatless Monday: Southwestern Quinoa Salad & Sangria

If you've never had quinoa, you're missing out, people. Not only is it really versatile in terms of what kinds of dishes you can make with it, it's considered a 'super food' and a 'complete' protein with nutritional value that easily beats out other grains. I find it a nice substitute for rice or couscous, have used it as a base for lots of dishes and a main ingredient in salad, and hope to try it in soup sometime soon. This particular recipe is a new favorite.

Southwestern Quinoa Salad
Recipe

The recipe doesn't suggest to do this, but I enjoyed using the lettuce leaves to make little wraps with the salad as I ate it. You might consider trying that too. I also used vegetable broth instead of water when cooking the quinoa. I found it enhanced the flavor of the dish just a bit. And, of course, as usual, I skipped the cilantro, but you obviously don't have to.

Another substitution you can consider is using a little cayenne pepper instead of jalapeño chili. I ended up having to do that because I didn't find out until it was too late that my chili had gone bad and was unusable. If you decide to do the same, I would recommend incorporating the cayenne pepper with the lime juice, oil, and cumin at the beginning so it gets distributed evenly throughout the dish when you mix it all up. And, remember, a little cayenne goes a long way, . . . but you know you're heat tolerance better than me!

We decided to have sangria with our salad and it turned out to be a fantastic pairing. If you're interested, I highly recommend trying the recipe we picked up at a Hip Cooks cooking class -

Sangria
2 bottles Charles Shaw shiraz (a.k.a. Two-Buck Chuck)
3 oranges, thinly sliced
3 limes, thinly sliced
½ a bottle of mango passion fruit juice (or other tropical juice)
A dash of Citronge

Combine all ingredients and muddle.

(You can find quinoa, Two-Buck Chuck, and mango passion fruit juice at Trader Joe's.)

Got any favorite vegetarian or vegan recipes?? Please share!

Other Meatless Monday posts