Wednesday 23 June 2010

The First Fruits of the Edible Garden

My first courgette of the summer...
Great with my new favourite convenience food, quinoa.




It's just as quick and simple to prepare as couscous and apparently, even better for you. Especially if you're on a gluten free diet. It's a vegetable protein that's easy for your body to digest, full of lots of different vitamins and minerals. Unlike bulgur wheat or couscous it's totally gluten free and it tastes good.

Of course like with most grains it's just a vehicle for flavour rather than the main ingredient, but it does have a distinct nutty flavour.

Simply allow a 40g serving of uncooked quinoa per person, this will result in a cooked 80gm portion. Wash it thoroughly and then place in a saucepan with water. You'll need 120mls for each serving (300mls of water for 100gms of quinoa.) Bring it to the boil and simmer gently for 20 minutes until it's cooked and all the water has been absorbed.

I made this for supper on Monday because I had some cold roasted duck breast left from the weekend. The nutty flavour of this works really well with duck. I sauteed chestnut mushrooms, spring onion and the courgette in a little olive oil. Then used soy sauce to flavour, along with a good twist of black pepper. I made salad Tehrani which is a Persian salad made from finely chopped cucumber, tomato and onion, seasoned with sea salt and black pepper and dressed with olive oil and fresh lemon juice.

I just love the cute little curls that come out from quinoa when you cook it...

1 comment:

  1. I've been meaning try quinoa for a while so this week that's just what I'll do. That little zuchinni looked lovely too - almost too good to eat! Perhaps I might try growing some vegetables in pots rather than in the ground next summer.

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