Adventures in Trying New Foods: Quinoa Update

Over the past couple of years, trying out more grains (or grain-like foods) has been something I’ve been interested in. I love going into places like Whole Foods, where you can grab a few spoonfuls of out-of-the-ordinary grain salads, made out of quinoa or couscous, barley or wheat berries.

And yet, I haven’t tried too much of that at home, save for my Balsamic Barley Salad.
So I was looking forward to the quinoa challenge for the month of June as a part of my Adventures in Trying New Foods challenge.

I started off strong, picking up a box of plain quinoa, as well as a package of pre-seasoned, Mexican-inspired quinoa and black beans. As my foray into the world of quinoa, I started the month off with the quinoa-in-a-bag, since I figured that would be the easiest.

It was so simple; just rip open the bag, pour into a pot with some water, boil it for 15 minutes or so, and it was delicious. I added a cup or so of additional black beans, and we spooned some salsa over top. I’m not typically a big pre-packaged fan, but this stuff was totally worth it, although I’d really love to figure out how to recreate it on my own. I haven’t found a good replacement recipe yet.

With that attempt stamped successful, I decided to venture out into trying making a quinoa dish from scratch. I received the book Quinoa Cuisine for review with this challenge, and it’s filled with 150 different recipes for using quinoa, whether it’s whole quinoa or quinoa flour and flakes. Some of the recipes in it were more obscure or involved than I was looking for (particularly the ones using quinoa flour, since I don’t have a gluten allergy and can readily use wheat flour).

However, I did try the traditional recipe for mixing up a tabouleh salad, a staple of Middle Eastern cuisine. It came out okay, but I think in the future I want to try using less mint. The book also has some tasty looking recipes for a black bean, corn and quinoa salad as well as a dish of quinoa, sweet potato and orange pilaf, which is supposed to make a super-healthy version of your typical sweet potato casserole. I never got around to making either of those for this challenge, but really want to.

I also tried a quinoa pizza casserole recipe I’d found on Pinterest that was okay, but not one I’m in any hurry to repeat. Plus it was kind of involved to make your own sauce, when I imagine I could have just used some of my own pizza sauce and called it a day.

Finally, I also tried whipping up a quinoa creation of my own, loosely inspired by the original Mexican one from the bag. I cooked some quinoa, threw in some corn, black beans, red peppers and scooped some salsa over top and ate it with tortilla chips. Pretty good, but I still need to figure out the seasonings to add. I’m thinking some lime juice, cumin and crushed red pepper maybe?

We’ll see, but in the meantime, I’m still experimenting with this new-to-me food and enjoying branching out, especially since quinoa is a super good-for-you food (packed with protein) that the Incas referred to as “gold.”

Do you have any good tips or recipes for making use of this “gold” in your own kitchen? I’d love to hear any of your recommendations in the comments!

(You can read up on all the posts in this challenge here.)

Related Posts
Adventures in Trying New Foods: Brussels Sprouts
Adventures in Trying New Foods: Kale Update

{ image source }

READ FULL POST >>

Pesto, Artichoke & Caramelized Onion Pizza on Homemade, 100% Whole Wheat Dough

As a part of my New Year’s resolution to try cooking with a new food each month, my challenge for the month of May was to use artichokes. In doing so, I discovered one of my new favorite recipes: Pesto, Artichoke & Caramelized Onion Pizza.

While on a trip to Washington, DC, my husband and I ordered a similar pizza, so when we came home, I knew I wanted to try to recreate it for my Adventures in Trying New Foods challenge. So, I went to task and came up with this veggie lover delight, which you can make with or without cheese. (Really it doesn’t need any additional cheese, but I’ll let you be the judge of that!)

I loved it so much that I whipped up two of these pizzas in one week and then have made another almost every week since. This recipe is a keeper.

So without further ado, the recipe for how to make Pesto, Artichoke & Caramelized Onion Pizza, from making a 100% whole-wheat crust to adding the toppings. Enjoy!

100% WHOLE WHEAT PIZZA DOUGH RECIPE

⅔ cup hard red wheat berries
1⅓ cup hard white wheat berries

Grind the wheat berries in your grain mill of choice (I use the electric WonderMill Grain Mill) to a fine flour, suitable for bread-making.



1 cup water
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sugar
Freshly milled flour (alternatively, you can use my recipe here for making pizza dough with store-bought flour)
2 tsp. bread machine yeast

Combine all ingredients in a bread machine (mine is similar to this one) in the order listed above (meaning, add the water first and add the yeast last). For the yeast, make a shallow well in the middle of the flour and add the yeast there.

Select "Dough" setting on bread machine, and press "Start." When the dough has risen long enough, the machine will beep. Turn off bread machine, remove bread pan, and turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface. (I like to use my trusty baking stone for this.)



Use rolling pin to flatten dough into a disk. (It should make one 12-inch pizza, or you can divide the dough in half to make two smaller pizzas.)

PESTO, ARTICHOKE & CARAMELIZED PIZZA TOPPINGS

1 cup onion, finely diced
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 cup pesto
1 cup tomatoes, finely diced
½ cup red pepper, finely diced
½ cup marinated artichoke hearts, finely diced

In a saucepan on the stove, combine the onion, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and sugar. Stir to combine and bring to a boil. Let simmer until onions are caramelized.

Meanwhile, spread pesto onto rolled-out pizza dough. Add all the other toppings, including the caramelized onions.

Bake in oven at 350 degrees for about 20 to 25 minutes, or until crust is starting to turn golden. Remove from oven, and let cool for about 5 minutes before serving.



Related Posts
Build a Better Pizza: Make Your Own Pizza Dough 
A New Years Resolution: Adventures in Trying New Foods

READ FULL POST >>

Adventures in Trying New Foods: Artichoke Update

Since January, I’ve been challenging myself to try cooking with a new food each month. So far, I’ve tried kale, Brussels sprouts, lentils and cabbage. But I think this past month’s challenge has been my hands-down favorite so far: artichokes.

Yep, you read that right. Artichokes. My favorite.

I’m just as surprised as you are.

It really comes down to one single recipe I tried that has made me fall in love with artichokes and that has spurred a collection of jars of artichoke hearts to grow in my pantry.

But before I get to that, I should also say that it took a couple of disappointing attempts before I found a recipe that really worked for me using artichokes.

At the beginning of the month, I picked up a couple of fresh artichokes to get me started. I first tried out a recipe I found online whereby I roasted them in the crockpot with some garlic and butter and pulled them out when they were pull-apart soft. I put them on our dinner plates, and my husband asked me, “How do we eat these?”

Frankly, I had no idea. I kind of thought you just chewed the leaves and was ready to just go with my gut. He wasn’t convinced, so we took a break from the table and went to find out online, by searching: “How do you eat an artichoke?” No shame in admitting it, right? Well, turns out you don’t eat the entire leaf, so my husband was pretty glad he’d insisted on looking up instructions first!

Even armed with the correct way to eat them, I wasn’t too impressed with the crockpot-roasted artichokes. Undaunted, I tried another recipe where I steamed them and sprinkled garlic salt atop them and dipped them in mayonnaise. Still, I didn’t enjoy the process. It’s pretty messy and a lot of work for the little bit of “meat” that you can get off of each artichoke. Not worth it for me.

Then I turned to jarred artichoke hearts—which was where I hit the jackpot.

When my husband and I traveled to Washington DC earlier this spring, we got an artichoke-and-pesto pizza that we devoured. Back home, I decided I wanted to recreate it, and let me tell you, it is divine. I created it using the memory of that restaurant pizza along with some magazine-clipping ideas for making caramelized onions. And you don’t even need to add any cheese, it’s that good all on its own!

Here's a link to the recipe: Pesto, Artichoke & Caramelized Onion Pizza. I'll warn you that I loved this recipe so much that I made it twice that week. And the week after. And the week after. It has become a rotating fixture in my menu planning ever since.

This is the reason I’m so glad I made this challenge to myself to try a new food each month! I’m not sure I’d have picked up a jar of artichoke hearts and discovered just how much I really love them had it not been for my Adventures in Trying New Foods challenge. (You can read up on all the posts in this challenge here.)

Related Posts
Adventures in Trying New Foods: Brussels Sprouts
Adventures in Trying New Foods: Kale Update

{ photo source }

READ FULL POST >>

Adventures in Trying New Foods: Lentils and Cabbage Update

Since the beginning of the year, I’ve challenged myself to try a new food each month, which I outlined in this post here. In January I tried kale, and then in February I tried Brussels sprouts. In March I was supposed to try cabbage, but I never got around to it.

But, I’m pleased to report that in April, I tried the food reserved for the month—lentils—and also made up for lost time by trying out cabbage, as well. My most adventurous month to date!

First up, was trying cabbage.

To ease into this veggie, I found a pretty simple cabbage salad recipe on Pinterest (you can follow my board on there here, where I’m bookmarking recipes to try with these different new-to-me foods). So I mixed it up one night and was shocked at how much it made when you chopped it all up. I ended up using only a quarter of a head of cabbage and it still lasted me and my husband an entire week! And, despite its simplicity, it was pretty good. I made a mental note that it’d make for a good potluck dish and didn’t have to wait long to put it to the taste. The following week, I whipped it up (using half a head) and the dish got rave reviews.

Then I still had some cabbage left, so I tried another simple dish to use it up: roasting it using some olive oil and lemon juice. That recipe came out okay but not good enough for me to add the recipe to my collection, like I did with the first one. (Although next time I pick up another head of cabbage, I want to try this family recipe for cabbage rolls that reader Melissa shared. It sounds delish!)

Then came the lentils. I had ripped a couple of magazine recipes out that had some simple dressings for cooked lentils—which involved using either red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar mixed with Dijon mustard—and both were pretty good. I think they’ll make nice alternatives to rice that I'm keeping in my stash.

While I stayed pretty safe with the cabbage, with the lentils, I had a couple of kinda-crazy recipes up my sleeve that I wanted to try out.

The first of those was for a lentil loaf—basically a vegetarian meatloaf-kind-of dish. I am pretty weary of most meat substitutes so I didn’t have very high expectations for this. While I don’t think you’d ever mistake it for the real thing, it actually was pretty good! And it smelled just like a real meatloaf. Making it was kind of involved, but I think for the healthy punch it provides, it was worth it. Another one to add to the recipe chest.

And then, with the month dwindling down, I tried a lentil recipe recommended by one of my readers (thanks, Melissa!) who had linked to it in a previous comment: lentil tacos. They reminded me of refried beans, and I was kind of floored by how good they were! (Plus, they don't take near as long to make as regular refried beans do, which I know will come in handy.) Another keeper.

With some spices and seasonings, it seems to me like lentils are super versatile—maybe similar to how they say tofu can take on any flavor. Needless to say, I have a newfound respect for the humble lentil. I’m eager to keep trying out some more lentil recipes and see what other surprises they have in store!

And now for May? Artichokes. And I already picked some up from the grocery store (fresh and jarred) so I’m hoping that’ll keep me on track for this month. If you have any good artichoke recipes, I’d love to hear them in the comments!

Related Posts
A New Years Resolution: Adventures in Trying New Foods from Okra to Artichokes
Getting New Recipe Ideas 

READ FULL POST >>

Adventures in Trying New Foods: Brussels Sprouts and Cabbage Update

You know what’s funny? Even after I had January’s experiment of trying out kale successfully knocked out of the way, by the time February had rolled around, I had to literally force myself to pick up that month's food in the grocery store. When I wrote “Brussels sprouts” on my grocery list, I gagged a little.

That’s why I’m glad that I made this goal to try one new food each month. (You can see my original list of all the foods I’m planning on trying throughout the year here.) It’s not much, but it’s the motivation I need to actually do it. Otherwise, I’d still be gagging and sautéing green beans instead of Brussels sprouts or chopping up lettuce instead of kale.

With February, when I was trying out Brussels sprouts, I wanted to ace having them roasted, since that’s one of my favorite ways of preparing veggies. The first time I roasted them (quite simply by halving them and roasting them in a dish with olive oil, salt and pepper), I didn’t give them enough time so they were still tough. The second time, I let them bake a lot longer—almost an hour, I think—until they were crispy out the outside edges and fall-apart-soft on the inside. That was a lot better!

The third attempt I made for the month was a slight variation on the simple approach, which was to drizzle some balsamic vinegar over them once they were roasted and to make a sort of salad with them, mixing in walnuts and raisins, thanks to a recipe I ripped out of a random magazine.

Pretty good!

I’d still like to try to some more adventurous recipes with Brussels sprouts, but before I could, March was here and I was still trying to use up the last of my Brussels sprouts. Then we went out of town for a few days. And you know, other stuff happened, too.

Which meant that I never got around to picking up the cabbage that I was supposed to try for March. I guess that’s real life for you, huh? Sometimes even with the best of intentions we fall a little short.

Regardless, for April, I’m going to try to make up and double-up and try both lentils and cabbage. Think I can make up for lost time? Well, I’ll let you know how that goes in a few weeks. If you have any cabbage or lentil recipes, please let me know! I can always use all the help I can get!

You can read about why I started this goal to try a new food each month (as well as a list of the different foods I aim to try out each month), and you can follow some of the recipes I want to try on my food adventures Pinterest board.

Related Posts
My Goal to Try a New Food Each Month
Adventures in Trying New Foods: Kale Update

{ photo source }

READ FULL POST >>

Adventures in Trying New Foods: Kale Update

At the beginning of the year, I announced that a resolution I wanted to make was to try a different food each month. Just one a month, to force myself to experiment with new ingredients.

In January, that ingredient of the month was kale. (You can see the whole line-up of foods I want to try over the course of the year here.)

Truth be told, I wasn’t really looking forward to this. But then if I was, I probably would have tried kale already, rather than having to force myself to cook with it! I knew all the health claims about it and wanted to work at fitting more of it into my diet instead of always defaulting to spinach.

So, I started by searching Pinterest for recipes that use kale. (Here's the pinboard I'm using to collect all the recipes I'd like to try with these new-to-me ingredients.) I gathered a couple that sounded good and picked up one bunch at the grocery store.

The first recipe on my list was a kale pesto. I’m a huge fan of pesto and so I couldn’t really resist.

One of the neat things about this resolution of mine is that in forcing myself to try one new ingredient, inevitably, I’m going to end up trying other new ones, too. Because the recipe for the pesto also called for pine nuts and shallots, which I’d never purchased before, either. So with one shot, I ended up cooking with not one but three new ingredients!

The kale pesto turned out pretty well, so much so that I actually transferred it from a scrap piece of paper to a formal index-card, tucked into my recipe box. My husband suggested it would make a great dip, like a grown-up alternative to our salsa standby.

I tried another recipe on my list (kale and red pepper pasta) but didn’t think it was all that impressive. There was another kale recipe I’d saved—yam and kale salad—but I didn’t have the guts to try it. So I ended up using the last of the kale to make another round of the pesto, which I froze so that we can defrost it for a last-minute meal over pasta.

It wasn't a ton of experimenting, but it was enough to get me more accustomed to cooking with kale, and hopefully encourage me to do even more of it in the future.

Up next? In February, I’ll be trying out Brussels sprouts. (You can see the whole line-up of foods I want to try over the course of the year here.) If you’ve got any good recipes for those little guys, I’d love to know. I’ll update you on how that one goes next month!

Related Posts
Learning to Cook: An Art I Neglected for 26 Years
A New Years Resolution: Adventures in Trying New Foods 

{ photo source }

READ FULL POST >>