Superfood Cooking Class

I'd always been meaning to take some classes at my local cooking school, Orange Regional Cooking School. Recently I finally got organised and got myself along to two classes. Both were great.  The first class was a soup night, and the second of these classes was a superfood cooking class. While I generally think that superfood is an overused term, I get that it's being used to encourage people to eat nourishing natural foods, and that's a good thing.

A demonstration class, we have a lovely glass of wine, and sit back to watch someone else do all the work. And then we eat the spoils. For the superfood class Lesley Russell was joined by Lindl Taylor. Lindl used to run the fantastic Energize Cafe, sadly missed by all who ever went there.

There were many courses this night, all delicious.

Kale Chips

Mojito Smoothie, sadly without rum

Cauliflower, kale, anchovy and garlic

Freekah pilaf

Quinoa salad with roast sweet potato and orange vinaigrette
topped with lamb

Chia and coconut pudding

There was a soup as well- Roast garlic, faro and chicken soup- but I must have been in a frenzy and forgot to photograph it. It was a fantastic evening. I learnt so much. 

Even really simple things that I haven't done before
like chopping an orange- not in quarters

I've cooked quinoa before, and use it quite regularly, but learnt some new tips to try next time I prepare it. I've never cooked freekah, farro or kale before, and I felt empowered to give it a go at the end of the class. I was thrilled to learn how to make and cook cauliflower rice.

I've already cooked two of the recipes at home. I've made the chia and coconut pudding twice now- it's very delicious. And tonight I made the cauliflower and kale- I made a vegetarian version topped with tofu for Master Adventures and I- he rated it 7/10! A major victory.

This post is linked to Weekend Cooking
a fabulous weekly meme at BethFishReads

Spiced Quinoa Pilaf with Corn and Broccoli

I was inspired by this recipe in the Sunday paper recently. I've been buying sandwiches for my work lunch instead of making things. This one got me back in the low GI lunchtime groove. I really enjoyed it, although I was a tiny bit sick of it by day 5.

Quinoa is a low GI superfood. Gi 51. Corn and broccoli are both good for us of course. I eat a reasonable amount of corn, but don't usually search out broccoli, it was good to highlight it here. And I found a beautiful head of broccoli and two gorgeous cobs of corn at my local farmers market on the very day I was making this.

Broccoli isn't a carbohydrate source, and so doesn't have a GI value. Corn on the cob has a low GI value of 48.

Spiced Quinoa Pilaf with Corn and Broccoli

1 tblsp olive oil
1 brown onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 tsp finely grated fresh ginger
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp turmeric
150gm (1 cup) quinoa
500 ml (2 cups) water
300gm broccoli, cut into florets
2 large corncobs,  husked removed
2 tblsp chopped fresh coriander
Feta, crumbled

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Saute onion, stirring, for 5 minutes or until soft. Add garlic, ginger and spices. Cook, stirring for 1 minute until fragrant. Stir in quinoa. Add water and stir. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Uncover and place broccoli on top. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to the boil. Cook corn. Remove corn from water. Set aside to cool. Cut down the corncob to remove the kernels.

Add corn and chopped coriander to mixture. Top with feta.

Adapted from You Are What You Eat
Sunday Telegraph 28/2/12

The original recipe used yoghurt as a topping. I didn't have any this week, so used a bit of crumbled goat feta instead. It is accidentally vegan if you leave off the cheese.

It also grilled the corn on the cob rather than boiling it. It was easier for me to boil it that day, so I did.

This post is linked to Weekend Cooking, a fabulous weekly meme at Beth Fish Reads.

Autumn Power Porridge in Spring

It's not autumn, well not in Australia at least, but there I was no way that I could wait 6 months til it was autumn here again to try this porridge. After all it has multiple ingredients that speak to me. Pumpkin. Porridge. Pumpkin pie spice. Delicious flavours at any time of year.

Australians love pumpkin. We have it available fresh year round. And we cook it and eat it year round. It's not available here canned, and the idea seems rather odd to us. Pumpkin soup. Roast pumpkin. On pizza. In salads. I make a particularly delicious pumpkin pasta sauce.  But I'd never heard of or thought about Pumpkin Porridge- til now.

It's difficult finding the GI rating for pumpkin. Butternut pumpkin is listed as 51 in my Low GI Diet Shoppers Guide, and pumpkin generally as 66 on GI news, which is a wonderful go to source for GI information.

Porridge made from Uncle Toby's traditional oats seems to have a GI of 58. The range for porridge is quite vast, but essentially for the lowest GI options you should use traditional rolled oats or steel cut oats (these are difficult to find in Australia). The quick cook/microwave sachets are best avoided as they don't taste nearly as good, and they are high GI.

Quinoa is a low GI (51), gluten free superfood. It's become very available in the past few years, and is a common supermarket item now. You don't need to go searching in dusty healthy food shops to find it anymore. It's available in a range of colours, I used the white one today.

Autumn Power Porridge

1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup quinoa
2 cups water
1/4 cup cooked, mashed pumpkin
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tblsp agave syrup
Dried cranberries
Walnut pieces
Milk of your choosing, I've been using oat milk recently, but have just learnt that it is (high) medium GI of 69

Combine oats, quinoa and water in a small saucepan. Cook on stovetop over low to medium heat until cooked, about 15-20 minutes. Stir through pumpkin and spices.

Serve in bowls, add cranberries, walnuts, drizzle with agave syrup. Add milk.

Serves 2

Notes

I simplified the recipe, just cooking the pumpkin before hand, and then cooking the oats and quinoa together. I adjusted the quantities too, as there was noone else at home this day to help me eat it- well, Mr Adventures refused my generous offer to share.

I was anxious about the quinoa in the porridge. I've only made quinoa into a porridge once before, and it was an Abject Failure. Awful. And there was a tonne of it. I ended up feeding it to the dogs! It was much better here, but I'd probably increase the oats to quinoa ratio for my tastes next time.

You could easily put in more pumpkin, and spices- but then I am rather heavy handed with the spices, I'd already increased the quantity from the original recipe. I used some of the pumpkin pie spice I'd made recently.

To me this recipe is crying out for maple syrup instead of the agave, but somehow I had none in the fridge! This situation can not be allowed to continue.

This post is linked to Weekend Cooking, a fabulous weekly meme at Beth Fish Reads.

Quinoa with Roast Cauliflower

I have been making this for about a year. I was rather unfamiliar with quinoa a year ago when I started making this. Now I've made it multiple times, and it's always delicious. This recipe makes a great, nutritious work lunch, and is very adaptable, as you can throw in whatever assortment of leftovers you have lying about the place- it's particularly fabulous with some leftover chunks of roast pumpkin.

Quinoa is a Bolivian seed that has taken the western world by storm. So much so that it is causing problems in Bolivia. It is even being adopted by New York Jews as a controversial new kosher food for passover.

I always feel conflicted about food miles when using quinoa. All the brands I've ever found have been grown in Bolivia. I've never found any grown in Australia, maybe that will happen sometime soon. When I made this today I was able to use a glorious cauliflower grown locally in Canowindra. Hopefully this can help combat the Bolivian effect.

Gorgeous local cauliflower

Quinoa with Roast Cauliflower

1 medium cauliflower, cut into small florets
olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
80gm red quinoa
300mL chicken or vegetable stock
1/2 small bunch chives, chopped
soft marinated goats cheese

Preheat the overn to 170C

Spread the cauliflower florets evenly in a roasting pan, do not crowd them. Drizzle with just enough olive oil to coat them lightly, and season well with salt and pepper. Roast the cauliflower for about 20 minutes, shaking the pan from time to time to ensure it cooks evenly, until it starts to caramelise and become tender.

Meanwhile rinse the quinoa and place it in a small saucepan with the stock (if using homemade stock add a pinch of salt). Bring the stock to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, gently for about 25-30 minutes until the quinoa is tender and the liquid has evaporated.

Place the quinoa in a bowl with the cauliflower, scraping the roasting pan to get all the crisp bits and any remaining oil. Add the chives, crumble in the goats cheese. Season to taste. Mix gently to combine and evenly distribute the cheese.

Serve the quinoa as a light meal or with braised lamb shanks.

Cath Claringbold. Good Weekend 15/5/2010

Notes
My oven is always slow. It takes much longer than 20 minutes in my oven to roast the cauliflower.

While it is better if you add some cheese to it, sometimes I've run out and it's still delicious. It's fine with or without chives too.

My 10 year old son is even happy eating this! For some reason cauliflower is his favourite vegetable and he even like quinoa- although he prefers to call it worms.


I often throw in some other veggies when roasting the cauliflower- such as parsnip, carrot and pumpkin. This then makes enough for a whole week of nutritious tasty low GI work lunches.

Japanese Quinoa Salad

Oops I did it again. I was half way through making this before I realised that it was Accidentally Vegan (well it would be if you use vegetable stock, which I did and leave out the honey I guess). It could be gluten free, if you used the tamari (I think that's GF, although I'm not a GF expert).

It's great where inspiration can strike. Thumbing through this weeks Good Living (the Tuesday Food and Wine supplement in the Sydney Morning Herald) my eyes lit up at the kids recipe- a spinoff from the Junior Masterchef phenomenon no doubt. Japanese Quinoa Salad.

I had some fabulous quinoa in the pantry and thought it would look fantastic in this salad.

Actually I think it looks prettier uncooked and in the packet, but it's still a nice effect.

Japanese Quinoa Salad

1 cup quinoa
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 large carrot, peeled, julienned, blanched
1/2 red capsicum (bell pepper), julienned
Large handful snow peas, topped, blanched
1 small cucumber, washed, julienned
1 bunch coriander, roughly chopped
1/2 cup cashews, toasted, roughly chopped
1 toasted nori sheet, ripped into bite sized pieces
2 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted
Baby spinach leaves, washed

Dressing
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp finely grated ginger
1 tsp tamari or soy sauce
1 tsp honey, optional

Wash the quinoa by rinsing it in cold water and strain well. Put washed quinoa and stock into a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to the boil, then lower heat, cook over low to medium heat for 25 minutes, or until soft, and water absorbed. Set aside.

Combine cooled quinoa, carrots, capsicum, snow peas, cucumber and spinach. Add the coriander, cashews, sesame seeds (reserving some to serve).

To make the dressing, mix all ingredients and stir lightly.

Dress the salad and toss lightly, sprinkle with nori and extra sesame seeds.

OMG I can't believe how delicious this salad is. My new favourite lunch, and I haven't even had a chance to blog my old favourite lunch yet. Interestingly, both involve quinoa. Although not all quinoa experiments are as successful as I found out today when I toyed with a sweet quinoa dish.

Notes
Suggested as suitable for 8-12 year olds to make, but is easy enough for adults to make too.

I can't stand raw carrot, and think it's actually inedible, and since I've already eaten some once this year, I decided to modify this recipe by cooking the carrots, and greening it up, with some snow peas and spinach. I was planning to add asparagus (just because I love it, and the season will end soon) but the stuff available yesterday was about as thick as my forearm, and didn't look appealing.

I  upped the amount of cashews because it seemed a bit stingy, and you can never have too many cashews now can you? And I doubled the amount of coriander, just because I love it so.

I just realised I forgot the ginger from the dressing! Oops. Still delicious. I used the honey, I may try it without, I was planning to, but it really is delicious as is, did I mention that? So now I don't really want to mess with perfection.

 Because this makes a reasonable amount of salad, and since I'm using it for work lunches it will last me the majority of the week, so I only made up the quinoa, carrot and capsicum. Then each day I add fresh greens to it in my lunch box. And I carry little containers with the seeds/nuts/nori/dressing to keep them fresh and crunchy, to keep the texture nice. No point in having soggy salad just because you're at work, there has to be one highlight to the day.

I'm planning on topping it with the asian flavoured tofu that I have lurking in the fridge (no-one else in the house is in danger of touching it!), but didn't get around to that today. I'm sure it would work with a tin of soy beans mixed through as well.