Warm Quinoa Salad With Lime, Garlic And Ginger Heather: Okay guys I am at the market and
I am going to take you on a little walk through.
Just bunch of aisle where the ladies are making smoothies with fruits and vegetables and there
are just fruit aisle and dry goods.
Hey guys, this is Heather from healthyeatingstartshere.
Okay, so last week we made breakfast together and this week we are going to make lunch together
and I am going to show you what I have been making for lunch here pretty regularly is
a warm quinoa salad and I am doing it warm today because we are in Cusco which is at
11,200 feet and consequently itÕs a little bit chilly, hence why I am wearing my sweatshirt
in my kitchen.
Okay, so warm Quinoa salad and I basically do it with whatever kind of veggies I find
at the market and I have been having so much fun getting whole huge variety of delicious
fresh vegetables from our local market as well as things like quinoa which they sell
there and today I found some fresh basil and I am so excited to use it.
Okay, so we are just going to start with making Quinoa because it is going to take a little
bit of while especially on my burner which is just a gas burner, I will show you that
later.
Okay, first step when you are making quinoa is to make sure you have the right ratio of
Quinoa into water and the thing is you can measure but it doesnÕt really matter what
measure are you using.
So I use this mug and then I just take one part Quinoa and two parts water.
So whether this is a cup or not, doesnÕt really matter, whether itÕs cup and half
doesnÕt really matter as one as you have the same ratio by volume.
So I have got one mug full of Quinoa here and the only thing here is that you really
need to sieve through it.
So what I am going to do is sieve through here with my hand and pick out any little
bits that look like things I donÕt necessarily want to eat.
They are hard to keep hold of them.
Okay and then to rinse I just put enough water to get over the Quinoa and then just rub it
with my hands like this and then I just pour it off, it doesnÕt matter if you get all
the water off and if you lose a few grains then thatÕs okay too.
Now normally I will do all this sorting and rinsing right into the pot so that I can just
get it going to cook it from there, but what I wanted to do today was toast some spices
before I get the Quinoa in there and there you want to have a dry pot.
So what I am going to do is, quinoa is in the bowl, I am going to add my spices.
I was having fun at the market because they donÕt label them and we can pretty much guess
the things out by their colors.
So like yellow, its turmeric and the brown I am going by my sniff test because it could
be cumin, it could be coriander and I am pretty sure itÕs cumin.
So this is what I am working with for cooking, itÕs just a gas pot that kind of thing and
you got to light it by match.
Going to light both of these because what I would do is get some water in the kettle
boil while I get the spices toasting, I am going to turn this spices down because this
heats up really, really quickly.
The pot is very thin.
And then once the spices are toasted I will add the quinoa to toast it.
And then water.
So if I get the water boiling first it will be a little bit heated up when I add it to
quinoa.
ItÕs important to not burn the spices by moving them around a little bit in the pot
while they cook and as soon as you see them start to brown a little bit or they make a
off a little bit of smoke they are toasted and then you want to add your quinoa.
The spices are great because they add small amounts of really important nutrients and
the India spices like cumin and turmeric are especially good for certain essential amino
acids.
We also have tons of anti-oxidants and they are starting to smoke a little bit, so I am
going to add my quinoa and itÕs wet so itÕs going to sizzle a little bit and itÕs nice
to give the quinoa a little bit of a toast as well that will help reduce its bitterness.
So this is kind of like peel off.
Most people when they make this they use oil to toast the spices and the grains but you
donÕt need to and what I find personally is that when you toast them dry, it actually
brings the flavor out more from the spices and from the grain.
The person who use oil it kind of keeps the flavors within themselves.
So toast it the way you like but I like to do it like this.
And then as soon as that gets toasted a little bit then you can add water and itÕs not boiling
yet but itÕs at least hotter than it was making hot at the top, freezing cold.
So again volume is whatÕs important.
So I am going to measure so I am going to do two of these from my one Quinoa, just a
little shake of salt helps the Quinoa cook and then put the lid on so the water doesnÕt
evaporate.
You want to bring it to a boil so I am to turn the heat up a little bit until it gets
boiling and then you want to turn it down as low as possible.
Okay so what I am just going to start with is an onion which is cebolla, my market lady
teaching me, and some garlic which is just gorgeous.
I bought this from lady that -- also around your table was garlic and potatoes which was
awesome so I got some of this and some ginger which has very exciting antigens, itÕs very
warming to your system.
So itÕs very cool here, itÕs nice to get spices and ginger and all that stuff going.
So the quinoa is going to take a little while to cook, about 20-30 minutes, so you can take
your time chopping your vegetables and then you try to practice your spanish.
So I have been going to this one lady at the market for my vegetables and she sincerely
teaching me the names which I could look out of course but itÕs much more fun to have
the teaching.
So I have got cebolla for onion, pimientos for peppers, espinaca for spinach, I think
thatÕs right someone who corrects me if I am wrong.
What else have I got?
Green beans, I forgot what she called those.
So again someone can chime in, I know there are lots of you out there who speak Spanish
so you can help me too.
Okay so those and I forget tomatoes too.
See I have to keep going back every day so I can get my lessons from her and I think
this is -- avocado.
So I have got my onion, garlic and ginger tossed up and cooking in the pan.
I not only have been using this kind of non-stick pan but when you are traveling you have to
work with what you got.
So I just stir this occasionally and pan has now gotten hot so then add just a little bit
of extra virgin olive oil.
You can also use veggie broth or just some water if you prefer.
DonÕt eat very much at all, just about a teaspoon or less and it really helps if you
add that once the pan is hot, because it lessens the time the oil is exposed to heat and what
the oil does for vegetables is it cooks the vegetables, you donÕt have to worry about
coating pan like the one when we are cooking meat or eggs or something like that so for
this case itÕs all over this.
So leave those to cut a little bit and you can chop up the rest of your vegetables.
Next into the pan is going to be some green beans which I just rinsed and trimmed and
then chopped into bite size pieces and then after that itÕs going to be some red pepper
and then some tomatoes and at the end I am going to put in some avocado just to warm
it up along with some fresh basil and some spinach which I am going to wash and chop.
So this pan will hold more than it looks but I usually get little carried away with my
veggies and pile it way to hard.
We do have a little pot but itÕs full of a soup that Phil made last night and so I
am just going to stir this through very carefully.
I have got pinch of salt in here as well which really helps to bring the flavor of the veggies
out and soften them and just make it taste all around nice, so you donÕt need much but
a little pinch of salt it is very, very good.
Okay so my quinoa is cooked and itÕs got a nice yellow color from turmeric and you
could toss this in with the veggies or rather in my case I am going to toss the veggies
into the quinoa because it has a bigger pot, but Phil eats a lot more than I do but I still
like to get same amount of veggies so what I do is put a bigger portion of quinoa in
his bowl, smaller portion in mine and then I season them at the bottom to make sure it
taste really nice and one thing I am going to do is lime which I developed the lime juicing
technique here that avoids the seeds when I donÕt have strainer.
So I cut it in half and then cut it in quarter and then I just cut the middle out, it depends
what kind of knife you have this to help.
Well this is going to go.
And then I just pull the middle out and then the seeds come with it.
And then I can squeeze a quarter of lime on the quinoa and then the other half I will
use on top of the veggies.
Limes are used so much here vegetable market in Lima and they had a entire aisle of just
lime vendors.
All they were selling was lime!
It was pretty fun.
So I got mine on that too and then I am also going to put some Sacha Inchi Oil on top which
is really high omega 3 and because Phil and I havenÕt been able to grind flaxes for ourselves,
we are having some Sacha Inchi.
Sacha Inchi is 48% Omega 3 which is even more than flaxes and the important thing there
is that you need a good ratio of Omega 3 and Omega 6 and most of the oils like olive oil
have more Omega 6 than Omega 3.
Like our body it needs more Omega 3 than 6 so itÕs always good when you get a source
of really concentrated Omega 3.
The only thing you donÕt want to do with Sacha Inchi is cook with it and same thing
with flaxseed.
So if you donÕt have access to Sacha Inchi Oil which I donÕt usually buy it in Canada
because itÕs very expensive and so if are using flaxseed oil itÕs the same thing, you
donÕt want to cook with it because they are so high in Omega 3 which are unstable at heat,
just use it after things are cooked, mix it in, it is really nice.
So thatÕs our quinoa and then I am going to now stir in my spinach and fresh basil
to my veggies and it might use the quinoa pot because I am running out of room and the
last thing I will put on the avocado that I will just chopped in and I will stir through
to warm it.
So Phil and I have done all about the healthy parts in cool weather, really, really nice,
helps to keep warm and itÕs so exciting.
Alright, I howÕs that for a plate of veggies.
So this is a big serving so this one is PhilÕs and that one is mine and so when I say in
the recipe that it makes to the three serving, this is what, we have been eating lunch as
our big meal of the day and so this is a big meal and Phil eats big portions.
So this meal probably will go to three or maybe a four portions for a lot of you but
itÕs mostly the veggies, itÕs really looking really good.
And if you want the recipe of course just little below this video, here on my site,
you will see it there, if you are not, there will be a link with the video and if you want
more recipes every week while I am traveling through Peru you can subscribe to my channel,
and thatÕs it.
So we are going to enjoy our massive veggie lunch.
Great seasoning, really fresh, nice stuff in the market sounds good.