healthy laps

On my goodness – this was amazing!

I recently purchased the cookbook, Veganomicon due to all of the rave reviews it has received.  I was looking for a vegan cookbook to try out some stuff, so I figured, why not?!

We had girls night tonight, so I thought it was the perfect time to make a fun springy recipe.

Enter: Pineapple-Cashew-Quinoa

You can find the recipe here!

It was sweet and spicy at the same time, and the flavors all worked really well together.

I decided to use both white and red quinoa to make it prettier.  Red and white quinoa have the same health properties.  The only difference is the color!  Quinoa is most commonly referred to as a grain, but it is actually the seed of a leafy plant, related to spinach, beets and Swiss chard.  It has a very delicate taste, and therefore, takes on the taste of the foods that you mix it with or cook it with (like pineapple juice!).  It is considered a complete protein and is very rich in iron, potassium and dietary fiber.  It is very easily digested!

The recipe recommends that you cook the quinoa in 1/2 water and 1/2 pineapple juice, so I did just that.  I cut up a pineapple and reserved 4 cups of pineapple chunks, then juiced the rest for cooking.

While the quinoa was cooking, I got to work chopping up the remaining ingredients, including red peppers, chili peppers, scallions, basil and mint.  It is important to have everything chopped up ahead of time, because once you start cooking everything gets added to the pot quite quickly.

I started by toasted the cashews over medium-low heat until toasted.

Once the cashews are toasted (it took about 7 minutes), place them in a separate bowl and turn the heat in your pan up to medium heat.  Then add sesame oil, scallions and garlic and saute for about 5 minutes, until garlic sizzles.

At this point, we were chatting, so I forgot to snap photos of each step :).  But, after the garlic sizzles, you add the chile peppers (above), and then the peppers, peas and quinoa.  Once heated through, add the basil and mint for 2 minutes, then the pineapple and cashews.

Continue to stir-fry for about 10 minutes until everything is heated through, then serve warm.

I served this along with a spinach, tomato and mozzarella salad.

This was delicious!  I think everyone else loved it as well.

Filed under: Cookbooks, Recipes | Tagged: quinoa, veganomicon |