Erin’s Easy Eats

According to the package that it came in, quinoa is “The Supergrain of the Future!”  So I guess I better start learning what to do with it.  First things first:  Do not go into your local hippie supermarket and ask for “kwin-oh-ah.”  They will laugh at you.  It is “keen-wah.”  Oh.  I had to take the woman over to the bulk bin and say “This stuff.  Do you have more of it somewhere else?”  And they did.  And it came with a little pamphlet declaring it as the super grain of the future.  The future is now, man.

Anyway.  I’d never even had quinoa before tonight. And I like it, a lot.  It’s like nutty couscous, with a little bite to it, like perfectly cooked rice.  I will discover more things to make with it soon.  Anyway, here it replaces couscous or bulgar in a rather traditional tabbouleh, and is accompanied by “cucumber soup” (which was looked down upon as “green mush” before I actually made it, and then made and enjoyed, at least, i think it was.)  The cucumber soup is more like a very finely pureed raita, with the mint and the yogurt and such.  I think next time, I’ll back off a little on the yogurt, because there was too much of it and our “soup” was very watery indeed.  The tabbouleh, on the other hand, was wonderful and flavorful and I used two cucumbers from my very own garden!

Tabbouleh

• 1/2 c. uncooked quinoa, cooked with 1 c. water (cook like rice, about 12 minutes)
• 1 tomato, diced
• 1/4 cucumber, peeled and diced
• 2 green onions, finely chopped
• 3 Tbs finely chopped mint
• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 3 Tbs lemon juice
• Salt (more than you think) and pepper to taste

Combine all of that stuff in a bowl and stir it up.  Let it sit around until it is cold.

Cucumber Soup

• 1 1/2 cucumbers, peeled and cut into big chunks
• 3/4 c. plain yogurt
• 2 Tbs mint (a few leaves)
• Salt (again, more than you think you’ll need)

Now, in order to make my cucumbers not be ridiculously water logged, I do a little trick that involves chopping them up into big cubes, and putting them in salted ice water for a few hours.  I’m not sure it does anything, but… whatever.  That’s what I do anyway.  Then, you rinse them off and put all that stuff into a food processor and let ‘er rip.

To make the fancy circle in the middle of the soup, I put a cookie cutter in the bowl, filled it with the tabbouleh, and smashed it down with a spoon.  Then, I sort of smushed it down as I lifted it (the first attempt was not so pretty, and I realized I needed to smash a little more) and then ladled the soup around it, and added some extra tomatoes as garnish.

Tags: cucumbers, quinoa, recipes, soup, tabbouleh, vegetarian