Dinner Improv: Quinoa dressed Local-Style
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 7:48PM After some heavy eating, I came home hungry for something light. With a crisper full of local vegetables, I chopped up some asparagus, radish, carrots and scallions to cover at least part of the color spectrum. Add a little balsamic vinaigrette with home-grown basil and mint. That part was easy. I'm not the sort of eater who can go without protein lightly. But I'd already had a heavy lunch with flank steak and spinach.
Enter quinoa. Benefits:
- SO easy. Popped it in the rice cooker with 1 part quinoa and 2 parts chicken broth (although water or veg broth would have been just fine)
- All protein! Quinoa has anywhere from 12-18% protein and has a ton of essential amino acids which make it a great light and healthy protein source.
- Tasty. If you haven't had it, quinoa has this light nutty taste and a cool grainy texture which make it a really nice change.
- Makes for great leftovers. I threw the whole box in the rice cooker and now I have a ton to use for salads, side dishes and even breakfast (heat it slowly with vanilla soy milk and warm spices like cinnamon or nutmeg, drizzle with local honey).
Quinoa sounds perfect! Enter the big "but". I realized that my quinoa was only local in that my local Trader Joe's is just down the street. So I did a little hunting and found that my dreams of a local quinoa-filled summer would not come true. On the other hand, I found this great website, Local Fork, which has a guide to locavore resources in NYC. With a little effort and broadening my farmer's market options, it looks like I can try some new grains and keep it local all the while!
Local items: asparagus, radish, carrot, scallion
Home-grown items: basil, mint
Could do better: quinoa
Pantry staples: grapeseed oil, balsamic vinegar, sea salt, pepper
Reader Comments (1)
I never quinoa has that much protein! Looks like something i'll be adding to my list of weekly meals.