Awesome quinoa burgers

My life is a mess. I mean literally. The move is about 50% through, and my apartment just looks worse and worse even though it should actually look like less of a mess as we have already hauled two carloads of stuff out of here. This move is completely stressing me out. And I have actually no idea why, because in theory, I'm really excited and can't wait to get it over and done with. Maybe it's the thought of having to do it all again in a few weeks time. At the same time, I'm really stressed about the thought that we won't be moving again in a few weeks time. What if things don't go according to plan with the dream house? I have packed all my stuff so that I will only have access to enough clothes to get me through a few weeks. I will be living out of a suitcase. I mean, for real. I'll show you a photo as soon as my suitcase is packed. All this while starting a new job. Which I'm excited and happy about. In theory. But I haven't slept well in weeks. Apart from two nights ago, but that's probably because I was wrapped in elephants. I'm also stressed about maybe having poisoned myself just now. I was taking a shower, and decided to start the first round of bathroom cleaning. I went a bit wild spraying limescale remover all around, and all of a sudden I felt like I was choking. My tongue actually started to tingle. What sort of horrible chemicals are we using to clean our houses? But I have to get the place clean. Hopefully I won't die of poisoning tonight. Hopefully I will be able to go to sleep thinking about all the exciting and positive things, and not worrying about everything that could go wrong. I'm stressed about all my kitchen stuff being packed and out of reach. As is my crafting stuff. I'm worried I will go crazy. I'm stressed about all the work that we need to do on the Culinary Consultant's house to get it ready for prospective tenants. But we can't do anything while all my stuff is filling every nook and cranny. So even if I get the dream house, we will be spending all summer doing up the old place and not enjoying the new one. I'm stressed I have packed something essential deep down in one of my gazillion moving boxes, and having to go in search of it later. At times I feel a bit like I'm going slightly mad. But I know that it will all be worth it, and it will all sort itself out. Things tend to do that. Now if I could only make my brain understand that too...

Just to get my brain out of stressing for a short while, I will tell you about quinoa burgers. It might not seem like much, but then you haven't heard about *these* quinoa burgers. I have talked before about food kismet. Or Pinterest kismet as it's more likely to be in my world. I love Pinterest, it's the best way to spend your time while waiting for the bus. Or to get you through your lonely lunch hours after your best friend just abandons you and moves to another country.

In my eagerness to spend all my efforts on trying to get rid of my piles of beans (and I'm happy to report, I finally managed to finish off the last two cans today!!!), I have completely neglected the mounds of quinoa I have managed to stock. I usually keep two packs of quinoa in the house. One of them is the one I'm using, and I have a fresh one I move to when I finish the previous one. And then I buy a new one waiting for that one to be used up. And so it goes, in circles. However, due to stockpiling too much food in a tiny space some things just disappear to the back of my storage space. I have managed to bury several half used packs of quinoa, which I have now unearthed in my archeological digs of my pantry. So quite a bit of quinoa to use up. Which is not a problem, I love quinoa. But sometimes just eating it as is can be a bit boring. So when this recipe from a blog called Eating well - living thin(er) popped up on Pinterest, I knew I immediately had to try it. Immediately, as in the same evening. So I broke my rule of not buying any groceries and bought a pack of cottage cheese. I think it was worth it as I was able to use quite a bit of stuff from my stash: quinoa, the last sad and slightly sloppy carrots from my fridge, the last frozen piece of cheddar hiding at the back of my freezer.

I modified the recipe slightly from the original, which had scallions instead of onions. I also reduced the amount of cheddar from 3/4 cups to about 1/2 a cup as that was all I had. I replaced all purpose flour with gluten free flour mix as I'm trying to use that up, probably any flour would do like coconut, rice, whole wheat etc. I was going to cook the burgers in coconut oil, but was distracted while cooking so I automatically reached for the olive oil bottle instead.

And as usual I have to apologise about the photos. This time, I was just about to dig my fork into my burger when my two lonely brain cells managed to connect and remind me that a food blogger should always photograph first, and eat second. Of course being a rather greedy food blogger, I tend to forget this. But then again, at least I can say I show the food just as it is. You know how looking at pictures in interior design magazines you go "no way does anyone's house ever look like that, there should be dirty underwear on the floor and disgusting dirty plates on the tables". Well that is how I feel like when I look at all the wonderful food blogs out there. Yes, the pictures are breathtaking. But my food never looks like that! My food looks like the pictures on my blog. And thats the excuse I'm going with, and I'm pretending I'm all happy about it. Smirk.

Quinoa burgers (makes 8-10 burgers):
cooked quinoa (1 cup uncooked)
1/2 stock cube for cooking the quinoa (I went with beef stock as that's what I had on hand, go for veg stock if you want them to be vegetarian)
1 yellow onion
2 cloves of (smoked) garlic
olive oil for cooking
1/2 cup grated cheddar
1/2 cup cottage cheese (they only had low fat in my local grocery store)

2 small carrots grated (original recipe says you can replace by 1 cup shredded zucchini)
3 eggs
3 tbsp all purpose flour (I used gluten free)
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp dried coriander

Cook the quinoa in about 2.5 cups of water (or according to instructions) with 1/2 stock cube. Let cool. Sauté chopped onion in oil until translucent, add finely chopped garlic and cook for a few more minutes. Mix the cooled, cooked quinoa with the onion and the rest of the ingredients. It will be quite a runny dough. Don't expect to be able to make nice balls out of the batter, I just scooped it with a 1/4 cup measure straight onto the pan and tried to shape nice, round and symmetric burgers. I totally failed at that. As the batter was quite runny, I didn't think the burgers would stay in one piece during cooking, but to my surprise, they did so very well! As suggested I cooked on a medium-low temperature to let a crust form before turning the burger and that helped keep it in one piece.

The verdict:
I love my quinoa, and thought I would probably like these, but was also a bit worried that they might taste a bit bland. Well, not only were they far from bland, they were really delicious. Even the Culinary Consultant, who usually would not choose a completely vegetarian meal said he would be happy to have these again. They were super tasty actually. I served them simply with a side of avocado and tomato slices and some garlic mayo. I can't wait until lunch tomorrow when I get to have another one of these!

Oh and there will be no card of the day today. On accounts of all my crafting stuff being packed away in the middle of that:

Posted with Blogsy

Roasted Figs and Quorridge

I'm always on the lookout for new ideas for brekkie. Muffins, scones, home made bread, french toast, omelettes, smoothies... But sometimes you want something really different. Which is where this lovely post from Joy the Baker comes in. I immediately fell in love with the idea of roasted figs. Figs are amazing, and seem to be so juicy and ripe at the moment. Yesterday I was strolling through the marketplace and the figs just kept calling out to me; "Take us home and make something amazingly good out of us". I totally fell in love with roasted strawberries earlier this year, so I thought roasted figs must be really tasty as well.

I'm sure roasted figs go together lovely with oatmeal. However, I have been making a lot of refrigerator oatmeal during the summer, so I thought something slightly different might be nice. My bootcamp nutrition plan had cooked quinoa as one breakfast option. I hardly ever used to eat quinoa for breakfast, partly because the bootcamp morning quinoa was served with rice milk, which I think is vile. But after finding this recipe on Eat Yourself Skinny, I thought quinoa would make a great porridge with the right spices. And because fall is so clearly here with crispy cold evenings and even the first signs of Christmas appearing (they are selling tickets to our traditional Christmas lunch at work...), I thought some warm spices such as cinnamon and cloves would make a tasty quinoa porridge. 

This could make a great weekend breakfast recipe, but to be quite honest, it's so quick and easy that you could even manage it on a weekday morning. Get out of bed, turn on oven, splash ice cold water on your face, blow your nose to get the smoke and soot out of your nose. Oh wait, that could just be the small minority of people in this world living upstairs from a flat that burned to a crisp. Anyways, after making sure your nose is smoke free, use 10 seconds to cut the figs in half, another 30 seconds to sprinkle with seasoning, and pop into the oven. Measure quinoa and spices into a pan, add water, let bubble away while getting dressed. Add milk to the quorridge, slap on that make up, remove figs from the oven, skip doing your hair and just tie it back in a ponytail. Because who has time to bother with the hair, really... Serve your brekkie, check what's going on in the world (i.e. Facebook), enjoy your hot spicy porridge while having a glance at what horrible disaster awaits you in your inbox, get so lost in the amazing flavour of roasted figs that you almost miss your bus. What a perfect start to a morning!

Roasted figs and quorridge (serves 2):
4 figs
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp pomegranate balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp dark muscovado sugar

90 g (1/2 cup) quinoa (dry weight)
1/4 cup water
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
2 tsp cinnamon
3 cloves
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tbsp dark muscovado sugar
3/4 cup milk

The howto:
Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Cut the figs in half, and drizzle with olive oil and balsamic. Sprinkle the sugar on top. Roast for 8-10 minutes.

Measure the water, quinoa, spices and sugar in a pot and heat until water is boiling. When the quinoa has absorbed most of the water, add half of the milk and let boil gently until the milk is absorbed. Keep adding milk in small quantities until the quinoa is cooked to your liking. Serve with the roasted figs, drizzling the syrup that has formed on the bottom of the roasting tray on top of the figs.

The verdict:
I'm in love with figs. They are so juicy and sweet just as they are. But roasting them just takes them to a completely new level. They get soft and mushy, and even sweeter. The balsamic adds a nice little sharpness to the flavour. And the quorridge. That certainly is a winner! Cold, crisp fall morning, and all those lovely spices. They make your kitchen (or all of your tiny little shoebox of a studio) smell like fall, gingerbread, sweet buns and all wonderful things. Obviously you can use any spices you like. But I thought ginger, cardamom, cloves and cinnamon would be perfect and very seasonal. Candied ginger might also be worth trying. Or maybe boiling the quinoa with prunes and raisins, a bit of cinnamon. That would also go perfect with the figs. And the great thing, roasting the figs will work perfectly when the best fig season has passed, and the figs are no longer juice dripping ripe. I made a batch and ate half one morning, and re-heated the rest in the microwave the next morning. Admittedly the texture of the figs is not quite as perfect when re-heated, but still very nice. And very practical. It's not like you have time to cook brekkie every single morning. Like those mornings when you have to spend 20 minutes in the shower to get the smell of smoke out of your hair. Oh wait, so that's not what normal people do every morning? Only the people who live in a flat which smells like a smokery. That's probably not a real word. Well, smells like whatever that place is called where things like hams and bacons are smoked. Oh, and if you think this moaning about the fire is getting a bit old. But it's not every day you almost lose all your worldly possessions because your neighbour is too ignorant to put out his cigarette. Which he was not allowed to smoke inside the flat in the first place. But everyone got through it unhurt, as did my shoes. So I will be complaining about it until kingdom come. But I promise, there will always be a delicious recipe attached to my moaning. 

Fruit-y lamb with herb-y quinoa

As much as I have whined about missing various Finnish cooking ingredients, this post will be a celebration of something I have been enjoying immensely in the UK. And that, my friends, is affordable lamb. Actually affordable food in general. Every time I go to the grocery store I remind myself of how much cheaper food is in the UK compared to Finland. Back home, food, but particularly meat is crazy expensive. And I know it has only gotten more so in the few years I have been away, so I'm not sure I can ever go back. Also, in the UK the availability of lamb is superior compared to Finland. Several different cuts, sizes and nationalities of lamb. Even organic from time to time. All to reasonable prices. 

I have very mixed feelings about being a carnivore. On one hand, on my current diet plan, there is no way I could get enough proteins from vegetarian food while trying to keep down the calories. And I have some problems with the thought of eating soy, especially as it seems to maybe not be as healthy as has been thought. I don't think getting all your protein from whey powder is a viable option either. This is how I rationalise to myself my carnivorous cravings. At the same time, I'm aware of the horrible way animals are treated, and that is certainly not right either. So while I'm trying to cut down on the amount of meat I'm eating, I'm also acknowledging that I'm being a horrible hypocrite, thinking that basically what I'm doing is wrong but have no intention of changing it. I guess we should all aim, when possible (due to accessibility, economic factors etc) to buy organic meat, or even better, meat from local producers where you can actually go to the farm yourself and see how the animals live their lives. But for now I feel like thats a bit of an utopian thought. 

Well, now that I'm feeling extremely guilty about even thinking of posting this recipe, there is one more point to consider, which should not be important but it is to me. It is just... so... incredibly... tasty! 

This recipe is stolen and slightly modified from Epicurious.

Lamb apricot tagine (serves 4):
300g diced lamb
1tbsp rapeseed oil
salt
black pepper
2-4 cloves garlic
1 onion
ginger root

1-2 tbsp Ras-el-Hanout (I also have used a mix of cinnamon, black pepper, cardamom, cloves, chilli and ground ginger as a replacement)

400g tinned tomatoes

1 chicken stock cube (and 500ml of boiling water)

230g chickpeas
1.25dl (1/2 cup) dried apricots and dried figs
cilantro
150g quinoa
1/2 veggie stock cube
mint 
cilantro

The howto:
If you are not using tinned chickpeas, prepare the chickpeas according to instructions. While chickpeas are cooking, heat oil in a frying pan, season lamb and brown on all sides, working in batches to keep the pan nice and hot all the time. Let lamb rest in a bowl, and fry onions, garlic and ginger. Add Ras-el-Hanout (or mix of spices) and cook for a minute or two. Add tomatoes and lamb, add stock cube and 500ml of water, let gently boil for at least 90 minutes, more if you have time and patience. When the lamb is almost done cooking, prepare the quinoa according to instructions. Finely chop mint and cilantro, and mix with the quinoa when it's done. 

Stir in chickpeas with the lamb, cook for another 10 minutes. Add the apricots and cook for a few more minutes. Serve with quinoa and sprinkle with finely chopped cilantro.

The verdict:
This is a great recipe, I love the mix of spices. I like to throw in a few cloves, some chilli and cardamom even if I'm using the Ras-el-Hanout to make it really spicy as the flavours will get a bit more smooth during the long cooking time. Also, this leaves the lamb succulent and soft enough to crumble to pieces at just the thought of touching it with a fork. The added sweetness from the apricots (I sometimes also like to throw in dried figs) goes perfectly with the spices, and the herbs, particularly the mint, in the quinoa bring a nice freshness to it all. This is a dish I can't get enough of, and every time lamb is on  special offer, I have to get some just to make this. The long cooking time is a bit of a challenge, as I tend to hover around in the kitchen, tasting the stew while it is cooking, as I just can't wait for it to finish cooking. 

Brilliant quinoa pie crust

So no Friday quickie this week, sorry about that. I did a long run yesterday (my trick to get the long runs done is to run home from work, that way you get closer and closer to home for every step and on a Friday evening that is quite motivating and keeps you going). Then after that I had to dash off to do my weekly grocery shopping, and when I finally got home, all I could do was to open a can of tuna followed by a chocolate bar. Not too much to blog about (and ashamed of the chocolate bar). 


However, what I have in store for you today should totally make up for it. This is again one of those moments when you go "oh my god, I can't believe I haven't thought about that, the person who came up with this deserves the food Nobel prize". I love pies, and for a long time now I have been trying to perfect a nice, relatively healthy pie crust. And I'll do a post about that some time, but this idea was way too good not to share immediately. I'm not saying this makes pie health food, it's still high carb, and usually there is a lot of empty calories from cheese. But at least this cuts out the extra empty calories from butter and wheat four in the crust. And adds a nice bit of protein as well. 


Again, I stumbled upon this idea on Pinterest (it really is food-porn at it's best). I could spend all day browsing, mostly you get the same standard american chicken casserole or cheese dip recipes, not to even mention all sorts of peanut butter cakes, cookies, brownies, ice cream and whatnots (the obsession Americans have with PB will always remain one of the big mysteries to me. It is certainly not that good...). Anyways, this one recipe caught my eye immediately because of the beautiful pictures. It's from a blog called Closet Cooking, which seems to have quite a range of recipes that fit in with my nutrition plan (talking about following a nutrition plan seems like a bit of a joke after munching my way through a giant chocolate bar yesterday, but I'll try to get back on the wagon. Tomorrow. As I have a dinner party planned for tonight...). Anyways, the recipe is for a courgette and feta pie, and as so happened, I had leftover courgettes and feta which both needed to be used up ASAP. And when I started reading the recipe, I discovered that the crust is made of brown rice. This was such a great idea! However, I'm not a huge fan of rice either, so I decided to try if it would work with quinoa. And it did, it actually turned out pretty damn good. So from now on, I can make (almost) guilt free pies whenever I want. This time I used some blue cheese as I had some left over from last week's crazy cheese and carb binge, but next time I will try to replace the cheese with yoghurt and see if the crust still comes together nicely.


Ok, so without further ado, let get pie-in'! 


Courgette and feta pie with quinoa crust (serves 4-6):
1 cup (160g) quinoa (dry weight)
1/3 veggie stock cube
60 g blue cheese (next time I'll try to replace this with yoghurt) 
1 egg
2 courgettes
2 cups (5 dl) spinach
4 scallions/spring onions
a big bunch of your favourite herbs (I used basil and flat leaf parsley)
2 eggs
black pepper
100 g feta


The howto:
Cook quinoa in water and the stock cube according to the instructions. Add blue cheese and egg and mix until smooth. Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Spread the mixture in a pie dish (I used a spoon as the batter is quite sticky and stuck to my hands). Bake for about 10 minutes, or until the crust turns golden.

While the crust is baking, grate courgette, and chop herbs, scallion and spinach finely. Mix with eggs and season with pepper. When crust is baked, spread the filling in the crust, and crumble feta on top. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the filling has set and feta gets a nice golden colour.


One serving (1/6 of the recipe) contains 246 kcal (12 g fat, 21 g carbs and 12 g protein). 


The verdict:
This is absolute food genius, finally a healthy(ish) pie crust. This feels a bit like the holy grail of pie crusts. I have a range of fillings I like, a salmon one, a tuna one and a white cabbage one so I will definitely be making this often. The courgette and herb filling tasted very summery and fresh, and the feta adds a nice bit of flavour, as the courgette needs something with a stronger flavour to complement the mild creaminess. But although the filling is nice, for me the genius of this recipe is the crust. I salute the genius who first thought of this!

Friday quickie

Funny how it feels like the end of a five day working week, although technically I've only been to work for two of those five days. But still, every Friday deserves to be celebrated with good food, enjoyed while chillaxin' on the sofa and watching Gilmore Girls. One of those shows you don't want to watch if you are trying to lose weight, as they just keep on eating. All the time. And still stay looking like stick insects. Of course, analysing it more closely, you actually never see them eating anything, apart from taking a tiny little nibble from that huge pile of pizzas, burgers and chinese takeaway. Then they just leave the rest. Which of course explains the whole stick insect thing...


Well, not that I would ever aspire to being a stick insect anyways, but I did end up doing a salad this Friday. I stumbled across this recipe when I was browsing Pinterest yesterday. Actually, I'm not quite sure how I managed to end up with a salad recipe, as I was browsing baking ideas and cupcakes. Oh yes indeed, now I remember, I ended up following a link to these maple-bacon doughnuts and then looked around this wonderful blog called How Sweet It Is, and stumbled upon the salad recipe. It was perfect, because I had some left over watermelon and left over feta which needed to be used up. And I love quinoa. And I thought I would try to eat something healthy. Of course, I followed it up by eating half my weight in chocolate, so I don't think having a salad made much impact on the healthiness of my diet today. But I loved the salad recipe, as I would never have thought of combining watermelon and feta. I've only made a few minor changes, otherwise it's pretty close to the original I linked to above.


Watermelon and feta salad with quinoa (serves 2):
85g quinoa (dry weight)
1/2 veggie stock cube
400g watermelon
30g basil
100g feta 
1 lemon

The howto:
Cook quinoa with the stock cube according to the instructions on the pack. Let cool. Chop watermelon and basil, combine with cool quinoa and crumble in the feta. Squeeze the juice from the lemon and toss. I served with prawns I fried in a hot pan for a few seconds, as they needed to be used up. Works fine on it's own without the prawns as well.


The verdict:
The salad is very refreshing, really great for summer. Too bad it's raining and miserably cold outside... I could imagine eating this outside in the sunshine. Of course for that, I would have to move somewhere where the sun actually shines. The UK right now feels like one of those places where the sun don't shine, if you catch my drift... Ok, so back to the salad. I love sweet and savoury combinations, so the combination of watermelon and feta was really appealing to me. And I wish there was some way to transfer scents online, the combination of watermelon, basil and lemon is just heavenly, and still lingers in my apartment as I write this. Another recipe I will be sure to return to.

Peppers with stuff

Just to keep up appearances that I actually cook healthy food in between all my baking, I tried to find a recipe to blog about which would not contain sugar, butter or cream. Also, my sugar, cream and butter overloaded derriere actually needs a healthy recipe or two. Actually it needs about two years of healthy recipes. I'll try to make it to next weekend before I do another baking post. Whoops, actually realised there are a few more baking posts coming up soon... I think I have a serious problem.


But I'll try to get down from my sugar high for long enough to finish this post. This is a recipe inspired by my mum's amazing salmon pie, one of the comfort foods of my childhood. And to be honest, she still makes it, and I still thoroughly enjoy it. The pie has a filling of rice, salmon and boiled eggs, and it's all baked in a puff pastry crust. And it's best enjoyed with a generous helping of garlic butter on top. Me and my sister always wanted to go for the pieces right at the end, as you got the biggest amount of puff pastry that way.


While still drooling over the memories of my mum's pie, I tried here to recreate some of the flavours but making it more healthy. I have basically kept the salmon and the eggs (and keep dreaming of the puff pastry and garlic butter...). Instead I've stuffed it all inside peppers. I love both stuffed peppers and stuffed tomatoes, and do them with all kinds of fillings. Minced meat with spinach and onion, tuna with olives, or just go veggie with onions, feta and olives. So this time I did salmon, quinoa and leek as salmon was on sale last time I went grocery shopping, and I think salmon and leek go amazingly well together. The quinoa makes a nice addition of healthy carbs and some extra protein, although with the salmon and eggs, this dish is rather rich on protein already. 


Stuffed peppers (serves 4-6):
6-8 large sweet peppers
85g quinoa (uncooked weight)
1/3 veggie stock cube
250g salmon
3 eggs
2 leeks
1 onion
100g spinach
30g dill
200g cherry tomato
black pepper
garlic pepper


If making 6 peppers, each contains 250 kcal (10g fat, 25g carbs of which 10g sugar and 17g protein).


The howto:
Boil the eggs, and cook the quinoa with the stock cube according to the instructions on the pack. Season the salmon with pepper and garlic pepper and cook in the oven until medium (don't over cook). Fry onions and leeks for a few minutes, and add spinach and keep on stirring in the pan until the spinach has wilted. Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. In a big bowl, mix the quinoa, the salmon (torn into small pieces), finely chopped or mashed eggs, the leek-onion-spinach mix and finely chopped dill. Season generously with the garlic pepper. Cut the tops off the peppers and remove seeds. If the peppers won't stand up, trim the bottom of the pepper flat. Put a cherry tomato in each pepper, add stuffing until half full, add a few more cherry tomatoes, and fill with stuffing. Bake for 30-35 minutes.

The verdict:
I'm the first one to admit this might not be the most exciting food in the world. However, I love the combo of salmon, leek and dill. And to be quite honest, I'm a big fan of eggs as well, although for some reason I always feel slightly odd admitting that. There are so many variations you could do with this dish. If you feel decadent, add some grated cheese on top. If you want to do a low carb variation, leave out the quinoa. If you don't have quinoa, but don't mind the carbs, substitute with couscous or rice. It's low in calories, high in nutrients, and if you use different coloured peppers it's really pretty too.