Organic Recipe Friday: Quinoa!

Vegetables, Intensified!

As I wrote last time, roasting vegetables transforms them, sweetens them, intensifies their flavor. It can also salvage just-starting-to-wrinkle produce. With those thoughts in mind and a surfeit of bell peppers and potatoes, I decided to roast them, separate them and then combine them with one of my very favorite foods: quinoa.

Quinoa is a nutritious crop native to the Andes. It cooks in just 15 minutes, works well in dishes as diverse as stuff peppers and summer salads, and has a great texture – a little bit crunchy and chewy. In the following recipe, it absorbs the intense, delicious flavor of roasted peppers.

Quinoa with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

Serves 4

• 1 cup quinoa
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 medium bell peppers, cut in half lengthwise with seeds removed
• 1 hot pepper (optional), cut in half lengthwise with seeds removed
• 1 small or medium onion, chopped in large chunks
• 4 small potatoes, eyes moved, chopped in half-inch dice (colorful varieties like all-blue and mountain rose)
• 1 tomato, chopped in large chunks
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup basil
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 cup sungold cherry tomatoes, cut in half
• Black pepper

Meanwhile, rinse quinoa, put in pot with two cups of water and cover. Bring to boil then lower heat to very low setting, so that water is just simmering. Cook for 15 minutes. Let cool. You may want to make this a day ahead or put pot in refrigerator on potholder to expedite the cooling.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover baking sheet with aluminum foil and coat with nonstick spray. Place peppers cut side down and place onion and potatoes on sheet. Drizzle with olive oil. Roast for about 30 minutes, occasionally stirring onion and potatoes, and checking to make sure nothing burns. Remove onion and potatoes when they’ve softened, and pepper when they’ve collapsed (peel may be shriveled or blackened). Remove bell pepper peel – you may want to put the peppers in a paper bag and fold the top. The steam will help the peel loosen after a few minutes.

Put bell and hot peppers and tomato in food processor and blend. Add vinegar and basil. Puree for a few more seconds. The sauce should be pretty thin but need not be totally liquefied.

Put quinoa, garlic and cherry tomatoes in bowl. Pour most of the sauce into the bowl and mix well. You may want to reserve the puree for pasta or another dish, or use all of it with the quinoa. Add black pepper. Can be eaten cold or at room temperature.

Photo Credit: Flickr CC User (and author) bornOKthefirsttime