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| Garden Fresh Quinoa... or should we call it "Optimistic" Quinoa?? |
It’s that time of year when the Optimistic
Gardener in me takes over and starts to plan for our family’s Optimistic Garden
– once again. This year we started even
earlier than we have in the past!! My
beautiful daughter (KIH) requested a greenhouse for her birthday gift…in
March! The same daughter
that is growing Etrog trees from the seeds of our 2011 Sukkot Etrogs. Sure enough, we found a greenhouse at our
local hardware store for less than $20…and we now have a five foot tall green
house in our kitchen! We transplanted
the gorgeous etrog plants (and other citrus plants that she had planted last
year) into larger pots and placed them in her brand spankin’ new greenhouse. While purchasing the greenhouse with my other
beautiful daughter (KIH), of course we had to
buy some seeds and little greenhouse flats to start them in. And of course we just had to buy some
cute little strawberry plants with sweet little flowers on them and two huge
pots to grow them in. The
hardware store people must have thrown a party when we left! We purchased purple bean, watermelon, cantaloupe,
spaghetti squash, yellow pear tomato, sweet cherry tomato, impatient flower, lavender,
basil, and parsley seeds. We added water
to the little peat pellets from the greenhouse flats, watched them expand into
enough dirt to fill the seed growing containers, and planted our little
seeds. Even the optimists in us didn’t
anticipate the incredibly rapid growth of our plants!!! AHHHHHHH!
Inside of a week we have huge seedlings growing – and it’s still too
cold here to transplant them outside. Sigh. This is where I guess Optimism becomes Reality! It’s incredibly rewarding to see our plants
growing a lot each day. When the
weather starts to get a little warmer (a little more consistently) we’ll move
the greenhouse outside to our patio and wage a silent war with the pesky
squirrels that plague our neighborhood.
The squirrels here are amazingly resourceful in their quest to eat every
plant that we put in our Optimistic Garden – we’ll just have to out maneuver
them with new and creative strategies.
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| She even put it together herself!! |
In honor of the great excitement
generated by our Optimistic Greenhouse I’m sharing with you a recipe for Garden
Fresh Quinoa. Based upon the recipe
that I published on aish.com for
Passover for Walnut
Quinoa Burgers, I developed this recipe when adding some additional
vegetables to the burgers. While making
them, I tasted the burger mix (before adding the eggs of course) and thought “Hey,
this is really good just as it is!”
Using the Walnut Quinoa mix with the vegetables is actually even better
because you get all the benefits of super healthy quinoa, sautéd vegetables,
and walnuts without the added fat and calories of frying the burgers in
oil! And Garden Fresh Quinoa is
great for the GFE (Gluten Free Eater) – bonus! When I made the Garden Fresh Quinoa as
a Shabbat side dish it was a great success…nutty, flavorful, and extremely
delicious. Yippee Skippee! Maybe in a few months I’ll even be able to make them
using vegetables from our own Optimistic Garden….or is that a little too
optimistic? We’ll see…here’s hoping!
Garden Fresh Quinoa
2 cups uncooked quinoa, rinsed
4 cups
boiling water
1 large
onion, finely diced
1 tablespoon
extra-virgin olive oil
1 clove
garlic, crushed (you can use a frozen cube)
1 large
carrot, peeled
1 large
zucchini, unpeeled
8-10 ounces
mushrooms
12 ounces
ground walnuts
½-1 teaspoon
fine sea salt (or to taste)
¼- ½ teaspoon black pepper (or to taste)
In a large saucepan combine the quinoa and
boiling water. Bring to a boil and
reduce heat to low. Cover and cook for
15 minutes until all the water is absorbed.
Turn off heat and allow the cooked quinoa to sit covered for an
additional 5 minutes. Remove cover and allow quinoa to cool. (This step can be done in advance.)
In a food processor
fitted with a medium shredder blade, shred the carrot, zucchini, and
mushrooms. Set aside.
Heat oil in a medium
skillet. Add diced onions and garlic
then sauté until the onions are caramelized.
Add the shredded vegetables and sauté until soft. Fold the cooled quinoa into the sautéd
vegetables, then stir in the ground walnuts until completely combined.
Shred the vegetables in the food processor...
Sauté the onions until caramelized...
Add the colorful shredded vegetables....
Sauté...
Add the ground nuts...
Stir to combine...
So good it's NUTS!!
Day 1: April 8th
It begins...we're Optimistic!
Big potted strawberry plants...
Check out the flowers!
Don't you wish you could have a
GREENHOUSE
in your kitchen too?!!!
April 12th:
Plant the basil and parsley...
How crazy is this???
They're already growing!!!
April 18th:
Ok so I made this one...
I couldn't wait for the flowers we
planted so I created my own ;-)
April 21st:
Little strawberries on the plants!!
HOLY COW!!
Our plants are growing
LIKE CRAZY!!
Our greenhouse is really
green!!!
Even the basil and parsley are growing!
Kosher Everyday
is dedicated to the memory of my father
Dr. Theodore
Saltzberg - Tuvia Ben Nachum Z”L
May his memory
be for a blessing - Yihi zichro baruch.
Look
for additional information about Edible Experience Kosher Everyday at www.koshereveryday.com,
aish.com,
Mishpacha Magazine’s Kosher Inspired Magazine,
The
Chicago Tribune Syndication,
or on Facebook at Edible Experience by Sharon
These recipes are for sole, personal use of
visitors to Sharon Matten -Edible Experience Kosher Everyday. Edible Experience
Kosher Everyday recipes are for your enjoyment but are not to be posted or
reprinted without express permission from Sharon Matten. Thank you!!
