Quinoa Breakfast

Comfort food at its best: Healthy, tasty, easy Quinoa Breakfast Bowl

During the week I do not eat breakfast. Yes, yes I know this is not a very healthy habit, but I do my best to make up for it in the weekend. Usually I will have healthy pancakes or vegetable-loaded frittatas, but last weekend I felt like trying something new.

I had some left-over  quinoa in the fridge. I thought would try adding some of the ingredients I used for the Overnight Fridge Oatmeal that I enjoyed so much.

The result was amazing! I had Quinoa for breakfast three days running with slight variations. This also means that the below is not really a recipe, more like a menu that you can use to assemble your perfect bowl of Quinoa.

 

Ingredients & Recipe

The recipe is simple: just pick the ingredients you would like and combine them.

1. Base:
1 cup of cooked quinoa (use left-over Quinoa that was cooked in water or cook the Quinoa in almond milk…adding spices)
(or use a mix of quinoa and millet for example)

2. Creaminess:                
a splash – ¼ cup of almond milk (cold or warm – I prefer cold)
3 tbsp creamy yoghurt of quark (omit if the milk is warm)

3.Texture:
1 tsp chia seeds (allow the chia some time to plump up)
½ tsp flax seed
(try adding dried cherries or raisins)
(or add some nuts)

4. Flavour:
Vanilla Essence (cinnamon, ginger, lemon zest)

5. Sweetness:
½ tsp stevia (or maple syrup or honey)

6. Fruit:
fresh or defrosted blueberries (or raspberries)
(blueberries go well with sliced banana)

7. Topping:
a few crumbled walnuts (almonds, toasted chia seeds)

Buckwheat Crepes

I adore the flavour of buckwheat – fragrant and nutty…and to make things even better, it makes one of my favourite dishes: pancakes! Both savoury and sweet.

Despite the name it is not related to wheat. It is not even a grain. It is it is actually a fruit seed that is related to rhubarb and sorrel.
Buckwheat has such a lovely taste I would still eat it if it were not good for you, but it actually seems to have number of health benefits. (Amongst other things it is rich in magnesium and flavonoids. Also it does not lead to blood sugar peaks – very low GI.)

 

Buckwheat Crepe With Cheese

Ingredients
75g buckwheat flour
140ml water (or milk)
1 large egg
a pinch of salt
chopped dill
oil

Recipe

1. Whisk egg into the flour. Add water (or milk) and whisk. You should end up with a thin liquid batter. If necessary add more liquid.
2. Add pinch of salt.
3. Let the batter rest for a while in the refrigerator if you have the time. (About 30 minutes is good, but you can also leave even leave it overnight.)
4. Chop dill and add to the batter
5. Lightly oil the frying pan and bake individual crepes.
6. Once one side of the crepe is cooked. Flip and (optional) sprinkle cheese over it.
7. Once the second side is cooked, fold the crepe.
8. Layer the crepes whilst you are baking the rest. This will not only keep them warm but also soft.
9. If you are making a large amount of crepes, set the plate with the cooked crepes on a saucepan of softly boiling water and cover with a lid. 

Tips & Variations

• The nutty flavour of the buckwheat goes wonderfully with fried mushrooms and wilted spinach.
• For sweet crepes add a dash of vanilla essence to the batter. Whilst the crepes are cooking you can heat up some frozen blueberries to serve along side.

Delicious cheesy crepes

Cheesy Quinoa Cakes

Lately I have been on a quest for recipes that are both healthy and satisfying. This dish is one of my favourite discoveries.

It uses quinoa which has a wonderfully nutty flavour and high nutritional value: it is rich in protein (18%) essential amino acids and iron.

And just to share some more useless facts with you: quinoa is not a grain it is actually a seed and belongs to the same family as spinach and beetroot.
To the Inca’s quinoa was sacred until the Spaniards conquered the Incan empire in the 1500’s. The Spaniard destroyed the crops and made growing Quinoa illegal.

Healthy, earthy Cheesy Quinoa Cakes

Ingredients
4-5 cakes makes 1 large serving

2 cups cooked quinoa (1/2 cup / 75g dry quinoa)
3 tbsp grated strong cheese
1 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1 egg, lightly beaten
freshly ground black pepper
salt to taste

Recipe

1. Place all ingredients into a mixing bowl and stir together until well combined. Season with salt and allow the mixture to sit for 5 minutes.
2.  Heat a frying pan. Add a little oil.
3. Form patties (either by hand or using a serving ring straight in the frying pan) and cook around 5 min on each side.

Serve with
These Quinoa Cakes are a great side for Salmon Burgers with Wasabi Tofunnaise.

Tips & Variations

• Instead of spring onion use fresh herbs like mint and parsley.
• The mixture keeps for a few days in the fridge. Which means you can increase the amounts and whip up a few cakes the next day for lunch.