Recipe | Roasted Eggplant and Sweet Potato Quinoa Burger

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As promised, here's the recipe for the burgers I used for my burger-bar set up for me and Chris on Valentine's Day.

Yields 10-12 burgers, depending on how big you make them.

1 small eggplant, chopped
2 sweet potatoes, chopped
1 large white onion, roughly chopped,
1/2 cup quinoa cooked in 1 cup water
1/4 cup vegetable stock
1/2 cup old fashioned oats
1 tbsp paprika
2 tbsp chipotle hot sauce
1 tbsp spicy brown mustard
couple tbsp extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 350°F

Spread your chopped sweet potatoes on a lined or greased cookie sheet. Season with some olive oil, salt, pepper, and half of the paprika. Pop that in the oven for about 15-20 minutes. When the sweet potatoes start to soften up, remove them from the oven and add the chopped eggplant and onion to the mix. Season with some more olive oil, the remainder of paprika, salt, and pepper. Cook together for another 15-20 minutes.

While your veggies are cooking, prepare you quinoa - 1/2 cup dry quinoa to 1 cup of water (or vegetable stock). Bring to a boil, then simmer, covered, for 15 minutes.

When the sweet potato and eggplant mixture is cooked, remove from the oven and let cool for 5-10 minutes before adding to the food processor.

Once cooled, Add the veggie mixture to a food processor with the 1/4 cup vegetable stock. Pulse until the mixture is at your desired consistency. I liked mine to be slightly chunky, but this step is totall up to you.

Add the veggie mixture to a big mixing bowl. Throw in the oats, cooked quinoa, hot sauce, mustard, and some more salt and pepper. Mix together thoroughly and form into patties.

Now, you can either bake the burgers off in the oven, since it's already heated up. Or you can sear them up in a pan with some olive oil. If you choose the former option, they'll take about 10 minutes on each side in a 375° oven to get a nice golden brown color. On the stove, they'll take about 5 minutes on each side over medium heat with about a tbsp of olive oil.

Enjoy!

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Recipe | Lemon Ginger Quinoa with Fresh Herbs

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I cooked this last night along with my Zucchini Pizzas, so this recipe will yield two servings, if served with a side dish, or one serving, if eaten alone.

1 cup vegetable stock
1/2 cup quinoa
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and chopped into large chunks
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
2 tbsp fresh basil, chopped
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp onion powder
salt and pepper to taste

Set a pot over low heat and bring the vegetable stock, ginger, and lemon juice up to a very gentle simmer. (You can throw the lemon half into the stock as well, like I did, for extra lemony flavor).

You just want the mixture to gently warm up so that the ginger is able to infuse the stock.

Once your vegetable stock is gently simmering, add the quinoa and bring to a vigorous boil. Once a a boil, bring the heat back down to low and simmer, covered, for about 15 minutes, or until the quinoa has absorbed all the liquid.

You can remove the ginger and lemon before you at the quinoa if you'd like. I chose to leave everything in so the flavors can cook together with the quinoa. If you do leave the ginger in, make sure to remove the big chunks when the quinoa is finished cooking. There are few things worse than chomping down on a huge chunk or fresh ginger. Ouch!

Once the quinoa is finished cooking, turn the heat off and add the red pepper flakes, onion powder, oregano, salt, pepper, parsley, and basil.

You may wish to squeeze a little bit more lemon juice over top of the quinoa before serving.

Enjoy! :)

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Recipe | Lemon & Cumin Quinoa with Bell Pepper, Tomato, & Avocado

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I didn't actually photograph the process because it was so simple and plus... it's the finished product that actually makes you want to eat the dish, right? So pretty! This should yield 2-3 servings.

1 cup Quinoa (I used Tri-colored)
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 red onion, chopped
1/2 yellow bell pepper (I used yellow because it has a very mild taste and I really wanted to showcase the lemon and cumin flavor in this recipe
1 tomato, chopped
1 avocado, chopped
the juice of 2 small lemons (or one large one)
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tbsp cumin
1 cup water
1 cup vegetable stock
Salt and pepper to taste

Set a large skillet toe medium heat. Add the onions, peppers, and olive oil to the hot pan. Salt and pepper the vegetables and cook for 5-7 minutes, or until they begin to soften.

Add the quinoa, water, veg stock, and cumin and bring that to a boil. Once at a boil, reduce the heat to simmer, cover, and cook for about 15 minutes, or until the liquid is absorbed. I cut the vegetable stock for two reasons: 1) because I ran our of veg stock 2) because I wanted the quinoa to be at a more neutral flavor so the flavor of the lemon and cumin could really shine through. I didn't want to just used water though, because the vegetable stock really does add a nice depth of flavor.

While you're waiting for the quinoa to cook, use this time to chop up the tomato and avocado and juice the lemon/lemons. Once the quinoa has absorbed all the liquid, add the lemon juice, red pepper flakes, tomato, and avocado. Stir to incorporate all the flavors and warm the tomato and avocado through. Add more salt and pepper if desired.

Bon Appétit!

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Recipe | Vegetarian Chili with Soy Chorizo and Tri-Colored Quinoa

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This is what I had for dinner tonight. No pre-planning, it was just a last minute dinner idea that turned into a god damn masterpiece (Rachel's reactions to it when she got home from work were enough proof) It should yield about 4 servings and it's VERY filling and hearty.

1 large onion, chopped
1 bell pepper (whichever color you prefer, I used red), chopped
1 package of Soy Chorizo
1 cup Quinoa
3 cups water
1 cup Tomato and Roasted Red Pepper soup
1 can of Black Beans, drained and rinsed
1 tbsp Sriracha Hot Sauce
1 tsp Cumin
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Smoked Paprika
1 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

Start off by heating up a large saucepan or pot with the olive oil to medium heat. Saute the peppers and onions until they soften up. They don't have to be browned or anything, so salt and pepper them and just sweat them out for about 5-7 minutes.

Once the peppers and onions begin to soften up, add the soy chorizo. Make sure you remove the chorizo from the plastic casing within the plastic packaging before you add it to the pan! Also, I don't know if there's any other brand out there that makes soy chorizo besides Trader Joe's. If you can't get a hold of soy chorizo you can just use soy crumbles and season it up like chorizo (google it, guys. I already threw out the packaging).

While the peppers, onions, and soy chorizo are cooking together, you can start cooking the quinoa. Check your packaging, but usually the cooking method for quinoa is 1 part quinoa to 2 parts water. So for this recipe, combine 1 cup of the tri-colored quinoa (or whatever quinoa you prefer... cooking methods may vary) with 2 cups of water in a pot and bring it up to a boil. Once the water's boiling, cover the pot and bring it down to a simmer for 10-12 minutes, or until the water is absorbed and the quinoa is tender. For more flavor, you can substitute veg stock for the water.

While the quinoa is simmering, add the cup of water, cup of roasted red pepper and tomato soup, black beans, sriracha, cumin, cinnamon, and smoked paprika to the pan. Stir to incorporate all the flavors, cover, and simmer until the quinoa is finished. After the quinoa is done, add it to the pan and stir once again to combine all the flavors.

If you can't get a hold of a decent roasted red pepper and tomato soup, using a can of fire roasted chopped tomatoes would be reeeeeally delicious in this. I was actually planning on using that but I didn't have a can on hand to use. Also, to stretch this recipe you could double or even triple the amount of beans in it, making it a 2 or 3 type bean chili by adding kidney and/ or cannelini beans or your favorite type to the recipe. Also, feel free to add as much or as little hot sauce to the recipe depending on your ability to handle spicy foods.

I'm probably gonna mix some of the leftovers with eggs tomorrow for breakfast.

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