Blueberry Quinoa Muffins

Lately, I’ve gotten into the habit of always having some cooked quinoa in the fridge because I’m never more than a few minutes away from a healthy meal.  For example, in the time it took to saute vegetables, I had this nice Confetti Quinoa ready.

In addition, there are so many unexpected ways to use it, like in the salmon burgers I made last night, and in the blueberry quinoa muffins below.  A friend emailed me for a blueberry muffin recipe and since I happened to have quinoa in the fridge, I was able to whip these up in no time.

By using a combination of whole grain spelt and buckwheat flours in this recipe, you’ll be reducing the gluten.  The quinoa will add protein and fiber, making them more filling, and you'll barely know it’s there…


Blueberry Quinoa Muffins

Dry ingredients:

1 ¼ cup whole grain spelt flour

½ cup buckwheat flour

½ c sugar like sucanat or turbinado sugar

1 ½ t baking powder

1 t  sea or Himalayan salt

1 t cinnamon

½ t cardamom

Wet ingredients:

¼ c coconut oil or butter, melted

1 large egg

1 c unsweetened almond milk

1 t vanilla

2 c cooked quinoa, cooled

1 c fresh blueberries

½  c chopped walnuts, optional

1.  Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix with a wire whisk. 

2.  In a separate larger bowl, combine the wet ingredients and mix well. 

3.  Gently fold in the dry ingredients and mix just until they are incorporated.  Fold in the blueberries and walnuts.

4.  Fill lightly greased muffin tins ¾ full with batter.  Bake at 350°F for ~20 min, or until cooked through.   Let cool slightly before removing from the pan. 

Confetti Quinoa

Having color on your plate is more than visually appealing.   It’s one of the easiest ways to ensure that you’re getting a variety of phytonutrients from your food, provided that the color is found naturally in fruits and vegetables.   In this article, I explain the benefits of phytonutrients and break it down by color.   And in this recipe, I’ve combined several colorful and flavorful vegetables with quinoa for a healthy lunch or side dish for dinner.

Confetti Quinoa

To make this simple, colorful dish, begin by sautéing chopped vegetables, like the ones below, then add cooked quinoa and spices. 

1 medium red onion, chopped

1 small red pepper, chopped

1 small sweet potato or yam, diced

1 medium zucchini, chopped or shredded

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 handful kale, chopped

sea salt

ground pepper

curry powder

tumeric (optional)

Begin by heating a pan and adding one teaspoon of oil.  Sautee the onion and red pepper until the onion is translucent, then add the sweet potato and one tablespoon of water and cover for a few minutes to let the sweet potato soften.  Add the zucchini, garlic, and kale and cover briefly again until the kale wilts.  Add cooked quinoa and spices or seasonings and mix well.  Can be served warm or as a cold salad.

Polenta with Salsa

I love polenta, even though I haven’t prepared it so much lately. For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, polenta is basically corn meal that has been cooked with water until creamy. Actually, if you’ve got the time, you can make your own polenta which is a fairly simple process, however already prepared is good too.

A couple of weeks ago, I discovered this quinoa polenta that incorporates black and red heirloom quinoa into the cornmeal so I decided it was time to make it again.

In the past, my favorite method for cooking polenta was sliced and layered with black beans, chopped tomatoes, seasonings, and a sprinkle of cheese, then baked in the oven. But this time, I made a simple salsa that I used to layer the lightly browned polenta rounds. It was light, delicious, and quick and simple.

Polenta with Salsa

1 large tomato, coarsely chopped

1 large cucumber, peeled and coarsely chopped

1 small red onion, coarsely chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

a splash of lemon juice and/or balsamic vinegar

sea salt and pepper to taste

1 package of polenta, sliced into ½” rounds

grapeseed oil

Add the tomato, cucumber, onion, garlic, lemon, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper to a food processor and process until very finely chopped. Transfer to a bowl and chill.

Heat a skillet to medium high and coat the bottom with oil (the polenta will soak up the oil so only use what is necessary).

Lightly brown the polenta rounds on both sides - it should take a few minutes each side. Drain on a paper towel-lined dish.

To serve, spoon the salsa on top of the polenta and enjoy!

Mustard Greens and Kale Sauce with Sundried Tomatoes

Two of the most powerfully beneficial groups of vegetables that we can eat are leafy greens and cruciferous veggies. This includes foods like lettuces, spinach, mustard greens, beet greens, kale, collard greens, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, and bok choy. They’re low in calories and fat, high in fiber, and a great source vitamins such as A, K, C, and folate, and minerals such as calcium, magnesium, potassium, and phosphorous.

Chlorophyll-containing greens purify and alkalize the blood, and both groups provide anti-oxidants, phyto-nutrients, and are mildly to strongly anti-inflammatory. So any way you can think of to get these veggies into your diet will provide tremendous health benefits to you and your family.

The inspiration for this recipe came from 101 Cookbooks from a pasta recipe calling for kale that sounds fantastic. The recipe sounded good and since I had a bunch of kale and mustard greens in the fridge at the time, I decided to combine the two. Because I was using mustard greens, I thought it would be nice to caramelize the leeks to sweeten them up a bit to balance out the bite of the mustard greens–the same for the balsamic vinegar. The tomatoes give the sauce more of a concentrated flavor as well as body, but I think tomato paste would work here too.

The sauce is good both cold/cool and heated and I’ve had it both ways. First with quinoa pasta (which is actually a blend of rice and quinoa flours), pictured above, and with cooked quinoa. It would also work with rice or other grains, or (I’m thinking!) as a pizza sauce.

Mustard Greens and Kale Sauce with Sundried Tomatoes

1 T grapeseed oil

1 leek, sliced thin crosswise

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 c vegetable broth (or more for a thinner sauce), warm

2 T balsamic vinegar

½ c sundried tomatoes, sliced

6 – 8 large leaves each of mustard greens and kale, removed from the stems and broken into large pieces

sea salt and pepper to taste

goat or feta cheese, optional

In a medium skillet, heat the oil to medium and sauté the leek until tender and almost caramelized. Meanwhile, soak the sliced sundried tomatoes in the broth. When the leaks are ready, add them to a blender or food processor. Add the garlic, tomatoes and about ½ cup of the broth, vinegar, the mustard greens and kale leaves, and a pinch of sea salt and pepper. Blend or process until the leaves are well processed. Adjust the taste with salt and pepper. Add more broth if a thinner sauce is desired. Serve over pasta or grains. Top with cheese (or blend in during the processing).

Chocolate Quinoa Muffins

I’ve posted a few recipes for quinoa on my blog, like Vanilla Roobios Quinoa with Coconut Milk, an Orange Spiced Quinoa, a Quick Quinoa Soup, and Tomatoes Stuffed with Quinoa, but I hadn't used it as an ingredient in a baked item. So when a friend posted a recipe for quinoa muffins, I immediately got excited about it. Her recipe is here and she also has a few more great quinoa recipes on her blog as well. As much as her muffin recipe looks and sounds fabulous (and I will try it, as is!), I tweeked it slightly because I had chocolate on my mind. The result is below. These taste rich and are moist and chocolately, but induce none of the guilt that may result from eating a heavy chocolate cake or pastry. I would very happily eat these for breakfast–I did this morning and I was hunger-free and full of energy even following my afternoon yoga class, which went very well, I might add. I've got ideas for several variations that I'll post after they're tested. Three cheers for quinoa!!!

Dry ingredients:

1 ¾ cup whole grain flour, like spelt

¼ c unsweetened cocoa powder

½ c sugar like sucanat or turbinado sugar

1 ½ t baking powder

1 t sea or Himalayan salt

1 t cinnamon

½ t cardamom

Wet ingredients:

¼ c oil, like grapeseed

1 large egg

1 c buttermilk

1 t vanilla

2 c cooked quinoa, cooled

1/3 c dried cherries or cranberries (or whatever dried fruit you like!)

¼ c chopped walnuts, (or again, take your pick of nuts: pecans, almonds, macadamia nuts, etc.)

1. Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl (the first 7 above) and mix with a wire whisk.

2. In a separate larger bowl, combine the wet ingredients (including the dried fruit and nuts) and mix well.

3. Gently fold in the dry ingredients and mix just until they are incorporated.

4. Fill lightly buttered muffin tins ¾ full with batter. Bake at 350°F for 25 min, or until cooked through. Let cool slightly before removing from the pan.

One More Thing to Do When in Tomato Heaven: Stuff Them with Quinoa

I had a plan this morning. I had bought some yellow tomatoes at the farm on Saturday that I hadn’t tried yet so I would use one to make a simple quinoa dish for dinner and add another to put in a salad. I set some red quinoa in water to soak for several hours and went on with my day. When I got home, I found these gorgeous beauties all hanging together behind some very bushy stems of a tomato plant.

They were so ready to pick–so perfectly ripe that I could’ve eaten one straight off the plant like an apple. They were too pretty to put in the refrigerator or to freeze and there were too many to put in salad, so I thought, “I’ll stuff them with quinoa!” I came up with the quick recipe below that made a very tasty filling and baked very nicely in the tomatoes:

Quinoa-Stuffed Tomatoes

5 – 6 large fresh tomatoes, tops cut off and insides scooped out and set aside

1 c quinoa, soaked in water for several hours and rinsed extensively

2 c water or veggie broth

1 T grapeseed oil or which ever oil you’d like to use

1 shallot, minced

1 red pepper, chopped fine

1 – 2 stalks celery, chopped fine

the insides from 2 tomatoes, chopped fine

sea salt

pepper

Emeril’s Essence (I’ve made a batch of his spice recipe w/o salt and I use it frequently)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 t fresh thyme

1 T chopped, fresh oregano

1 egg, lightly beaten

¼ c finely chopped walnuts

Place the rinsed quinoa and water or veggie broth into a medium saucepan on high heat. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and cook ~8-10 minutes or until almost cooked through. Drain if any liquid remains. In the meantime, in a medium skillet, sauté the shallot, red pepper, and celery. Next, add the chopped tomatoes, salt, pepper, and herbs and sauté for 1 – 2 minutes more. Remove from the heat and add the garlic. Fold the mixture into the quinoa, add the egg and walnuts and mix well. Stuff into the hollow tomatoes, place into a baking dish, then top with freshly grated parmesan if desired. Bake at 350° F for 30 minutes. Let cool a little before serving and then dig in!