The Food Site

I used to make a lot of salsa, then bottle them up and keep in the freezer. I’d use them for my salads, sandwiches or even to eat with rice. It has been awhile since I made salsa. Since, I do not want to freeze them this time, I thought of changing the recipe a bit and made a sorta chicken and quinoa salsa stew. Originally, I wanted it to be vegetarian, to leave out the chicken but then, I changed my mind and added the chicken for the two meat-eaters at home.

The great thing about cooking this salsa style dish is that it is very versatile and can be eaten as it is or with rice, salad, bread, even spaghetti! It is pretty simple to make too. First, you will need…

carrots, tomatoes, celery, onions, potatoes, bell pepper (capsicum), ketchup, balsamic vinegar, ready-made pasta sauce and

quinoa. I used red quinoa because it’s what I have. You can use pearl quinoa (the white quinoa) or black quinoa, whichever one you like. The cooking method for all types of quinoa is the same. After chopping up all the vegetables into chunks…

You will need to heat up a pot with some olive oil. First, you sautè the onions for a short while and then you add the carrots, tomatoes, capsicum, tomatoes.

After you stir it around for a minute or so, you add the potatoes, celery, sauces and water. Also add a sprinkle of dried mixed herbs for extra flavours. The quinoa is the last one to go in, after adding all the other stuffs. Then, you just leave it to simmer over low fire for close to two hours. If you don’t have the time, just dump all ingredients into the crock pot or slow cooker and leave it to simmer on low overnight. It will be ready the next day! And that’s it. Easy and so darn good, you may want to make it again and again!

So, here’s the recipe:

Wholesome Healthy Quinoa Salsa Stew

Ingredients

3 large carrots, cut into chunks

4 large tomatoes, diced

3 large onions, chopped

2 large potatoes, cut into chunks

3 stalks of celery, diced

1 – 2 capsicum (bell peppers), cut into chunks

1/2 cup red quinoa

5 tbsp pasta sauce

4 tbsp ketchup

1 tsp dried mixed herbs

1 – 2 cups of water (depending on how thick / watery you want it to be)

palm-sized chicken breast, skin removed and sliced thinly or minced. (if you want to add chicken or you can leave it out if you want a vegetarian one)

Instructions

1. Heat up a large pot with some olive oil.

2. Sautè the onions and then add the carrots, capsicum and tomatoes. Stir for a minute or so.

3. Add in the rest of the vegetables (potatoes and celery) and then stir in the sauces.

4. Add water and pour in the uncooked quinoa. Stir to mix the ingredients around.

5. Turn the heat up to medium and let it boil. Add the herbs, then add the minced chicken (or sliced chicken, whichever you like).

6. Turn down the heat to low and leave it to simmer for up to 2 hours. Remember to check on it and stir often to make sure it doesn’t burn.

7. If you are using the crock pot / slow cooker, then you can skip the sauteeing part. Instead, just dump everything in, add the sauces and water and leave it to cook on slow.

Special note: Water is important so you must not leave it out and it is important to add more as quinoa absorbs a lot of water and it needs a lot of water to cook. Here’s how to cook quinoa.

This quinoa recipe is great to go with any food. If you are cutting down on calories, you can eat this as it is with salad as I also like to call this recipe an all-in-one meal which contains vegetables, protein (quinoa is very high in protein) and healthy carbs (potatoes).

If you simply must have rice…

or if you prefer bread…

It is pack full of nutrients from all the vegetables and quinoa so it is not only low in fat (especially if you cook it without the chicken), it is very wholesome and best of all, so good you won’t even feel as if you are eating diet food!

I was supposed to post this recipe up a few weeks ago but somehow, time got away with me and I never did get around to it. So, now that I have some time to spare, I better get to it before I forget again and get distracted by something else.

These are great with coffee, milo, hot chocolate, milk or just as it is! The great things about these cookies are that it’s easy to bake, use very few ingredients and it’s vegetarian!

You first beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Then you add in plain flour and use your hands to mix it in and knead into a smooth dough.

Then you roll it into a log / sausage shape. Place on a sheet of grease proof paper and sprinkle some brown sugar on the paper. Roll the dough over the sugar. Alternatively, you can use icing sugar, cinnamon powder, ground almonds, chopped peanuts or anything you fancy. You can then shape the log into squarish shape or even triangular, up to you.

Then you wrap it up and put it into the fridge to chill till firm. That should be about 30 minutes or so. In fact, you can make this and then keep it in the fridge till you are free to bake it.

Once the dough is firm, remove from fridge, and cut it into thick slices. Then, you can decorate it with chocolate chips, sugared hearts or leave it plain. Bake it for about 20 minutes at 160°C or till it turns brown at the edges. Remove from oven, leave to cool and then keep in air tight container. Keeps well for a week or so.

When I bake it, I shaped it into triangular shape and then after cutting it, I decorated it with sugared hearts. So pretty and nice to serve to guests. Or..

Use chocolate chips to press into the slices before baking and it will turn out just as nice. See?

The best thing about these cookies is that you can also add other ingredients like chocolate chips, chopped nuts, chopped dried fruits, raisins and various flavouring to jazz it up if you don’t want it to be too plain.

Here’s the recipe:

Crunchy Butter Cookies (vegetarian)

Ingredients

1/2 cup superfine sugar (or brown sugar if you like)

3/4 cup butter, softened and diced

1 tsp vanilla essence

2 1/2 cup plain flour

Instructions

1. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the vanilla essence.

2. Add the flour and knead into a smooth dough. If you don’t want it to be too plain, you can add chocolate chips or chopped nuts or chopped dates or candied cherries or grated lemon rind or ground cinnamon or almond essence, whatever you fancy.

3.Then roll it into a sausage shape. You can either pat the sides to make it a square log or a triangular log.

4. Sprinkle some brown sugar on a greaseproof paper and then roll the dough over it. Wrap up the dough and refrigerate it till firm (about 30 mins).

5. Remove from fridge, cut into thick slices. You can also decorate the slices with sugared hearts or chocolate chips.

6. Preheat oven to 160°C and bake the cookies for about 20 mins or until it browned  at the edges.

If you want it to be less sweet, you can also reduce the amount of sugar to 1/4 cup or use molasses for a healthier option.