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Posts Tagged ‘lemon’

Lemon Chickpea Quinoa Salad

Posted in Beans, Chickpeas, quinoa, Salad, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on March 25, 2012| 7 Comments »

I am always on the look-out for a new way to make quinoa. I love it so much that I even have a separate category in my bookmarks for quinoa. I love how easy quinoa is to make, and how nutritious it is. So of course, when I saw this recipe from Cookin’ Canuck, inspiration struck again.

We have eaten this salad three times in the past three weeks. Once here at home, just for us, then once for a potluck at work, and then for our monthly celiac support group potluck meeting. It has gotten rave reviews from all!

Lemon Chickpea Quinoa Salad

Inspired by and adapted from Cookin’ Canuck

2 cups water

1 cup quinoa *

1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1-1/2 cups tomato, chopped *

2 oz feta cheese, crumbled

1 avocado, diced *

Dressing:

5 Tbsp lemon juice

1/4 cup olive oil

1 tsp honey

1-1/2 tsp dried oregano

3/4 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper

Cook quinoa in water according to directions. Cool. Combine with other salad ingredients, except the avocado. Whisk together dressing ingredients. Gently stir in dressing. Top with avocado.

Notes:

* I buy Bob’s Red Mill quinoa from Costco in the large bags. It says that it has been rinsed already. Some quinoa will need to be rinsed to remove the saponin from the surface of the grains, check the box or bag.

* At this time of year I can usually find tasty cherry tomatoes.

* It is best to not mix in the avocado unless you know you will be eating it all since the avocado turns brown after a bit.

* I think this salad tastes best at room temperature.

Do you love quinoa as much as I do? If so, be sure to check out my other quinoa recipes, especially one of my most-viewed and most commented-on recipes – Sweet Potato, Quinoa and  Black Bean Burgers.

This recipe is cross-posted over at Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays. Check it out for more inspiration!

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Polenta with Lemony Asparagus and Chickpeas

Posted in Beans, Chickpeas, Polenta, tagged , , , , , on May 16, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Almost two weeks ago now, in a Meal Plan Monday post, I mentioned that we were going to be trying a recipe from Susan at Fat Free Vegan. Be sure to check out the original recipe. We have tried quite a few of Susan’s recipes and especially enjoy a couple of her tofu recipes: Chipotle Barbecued Tofu and Sichuan Tofu with Garlic Sauce.

This recipe caught my eye because we love chickpeas (but unfortunately, not asparagus). I have substituted broccoli before in other recipes calling for asparagus and so I was happy to see Susan suggest it as a substitution. And when I saw that she cooked her polenta in her pressure cooker, I wanted to give that a try too as I have only made soups and beans in my pressure cooker since I got it in January.

So I made the polenta in the pressure cooker but it didn’t go as smoothly as I had hoped. I usually make polenta in a heavy pot and have had continued success with that technique but I am not sure what I did wrong with the pressure cooker. The polenta began to burn on the bottom but we were able to scrape enough off the top, missing the burnt parts. I will likely try making polenta with my pressure cooker again although I am not sure it is any easier or quicker than the way I usually make it.

Instead of the asparagus called for in the original recipe, I used broccoli, which I steamed in a steamer basket on the stove. I added the lemon juice and peel just as Susan did. I made the chickpeas per the original but I doubled the amount it as I wasn’t sure it would be enough for us as well as for a bit of leftovers.

Unfortunately we were not thrilled by this recipe (although many people have reported great results over on Susan’s page). The chickpeas in their sauce were not very flavorful, although the lemony broccoli was tasty. As for the chickpeas, I am not sure if it was because I used a different ‘type’ of vegetable broth and not an un-chicken broth. I used Trader Joe’s vegetable broth, my usual broth. And so I wonder if this was the difference because I found that adding quite a bit of salt to the chickpeas helped. Perhaps my broth wasn’t flavorful or salty enough? Or was I just ‘off’ that evening? Let me know if you try it as I can’t figure out where I went wrong.

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Lemon Pound Cake

Posted in Cake, Dessert, tagged , , on May 15, 2010| 2 Comments »

As I have mentioned before, I am not much of a gluten free baker. Don’t get me wrong, I love all the baked goodies, but that is exactly why I can’t have them around the house – I will eat them! But since my birthday was coming up and we were headed to The Melting Pot, I figured I deserved a birthday cake! So I looked in my pantry to see what I could find and then started looking around the internet. I wanted a pound cake or something similar. Something to go with some fresh strawberries but also something to take to my birthday dinner at The Melting Pot for dipping in Chocolate Fondue.

For not baking often, I keep a lot of Gluten Free Pantry (GFP) mixes in my cabinet. But this is partly because I can’t pass up a good deal! I often find gluten free items in the clearance basket at my local Smith’s. So I decided to look for recipes using one of the mixes I already had, either the GFP Old Fashioned Cake and Cookie Mix or the GFP French Bread and Pizza Mix. Looking on the glutenfree.com website in the GFP recipe section, I found this recipe.

But, since I was at home waiting for a repair guy to show up, I couldn’t really run out and grab some lemon yogurt. Nor do I like to buy the sugared-up yogurts. So I made some modifications based upon what I had on hand and it turned out great! It is lighter than what I remember a Sara Lee pound cake to taste like, but for us it was just right. I also made only half of the original recipe as it was intended for a large bundt cake pan.

Lemon Pound Cake

Adapted from glutenfree.com

1-15 oz. package Gluten Free Pantry Old Fashioned Cake and Cookie Mix
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 egg
1 cup plain non-fat Greek yogurt
1 Tbsp milk
2 tsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp lemon zest

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Combine all ingredients. Pour batter into a greased loaf pan and bake approximately 50-55 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan for about 10 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

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