Gluten Free Tabbouleh

This was another dish I decided to take to the BBQ/Housewarming we went to on Saturday. Super easy to put together and the final dish is quite tasty. You can eat it as just a side dish or get yourself some pitas and eat it with that.

1 cup quinoa, cooked according to package directions

1 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

5 green onions, finely chopped

2 cups small grape tomatoes, halved

1 cucumber, peeled and seeded, thinly sliced

Juice of 1 to 2 lemons, more to taste

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Sea salt, pepper and crushed red pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients together in a large serving bowl. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt, pepper and lemon juice. Serve room temperature or chilled.

Sausages with Garlic Quinoa

I was hoping to make garlic lentils since I thought we had them, but of course we were out. So I decided to use quinoa instead. The sausages were just some chipotle chicken sausages I had picked up at Trader Joe's...they were okay. And of course we served it with our favorite...roasted asparagus.

1 cup uncooked quinoa
2 cups water
1 fresh bay leaf
4 large cloves garlic, grated or minced
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, a generous handful, finely chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
sausages of your choice

In a pot, bring the water and quinoa to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer 15 minutes. In a shallow pasta bowl combine the garlic and about 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil and let stand 15 minutes.

Place sausages in a small pan and add 1/4-inch water and 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil, a little drizzle. Bring water to a boil then reduce heat to medium-high. Let the water simmer away 8 minutes or so, then crisp the casings 3 to 4 minutes more.

When the quinoa is done, and all water has absorbed, remove from heat, and remove bay leaf. Toss the hot quinoa with garlic oil, parsley and salt and pepper and serve.

Shrimp, asparagus and quinoa

When we came home form work tonight, we were just going to eat whatever was leftover in the fridge. Well, there really wasn't much to choose from and I was starving! I looked around to see what we had and came up with this. We had some quinoa, frozen asparagus spears from Trader Joe's (not the best by the way...stick with fresh) and some shrimp. I decided to roast the asparagus, cook the shrimp scampi style, and then mixed everything together. It was quite yummy and Jim said it's a keeper. Score!

1 pound roasted asparagus - I just used olive oil, salt and pepper on these
Quinoa - cooked according to package (mine was 1 cup quinoa in 2 cups water - it basically cooks like rice)
1.5 tbsp. butter
1/4 cup olive oil
4 cloves minced garlic
1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 cup dry white wine
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
1 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
1/2 lemon

The asparagus and quinoa can cook at the same time since they'll both take about 10-15 minutes. In the meantime, melt the butter and olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in garlic and shrimp. Cook, stirring constantly, for 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in wine and pepper. Bring to a boil and cook for 30 seconds while stirring constantly.

Add the cooked shrimp (with a little of the leftover juice) and quinoa to a serving dish. Cut the roasted asparagus into 1.5-2 inch pieces and add those as well. Add in the parsley, a little bit more black pepper, a little salt to taste and the juice of half a lemon. Enjoy!