Fresh Asparagus: A Quick & Easy Sauté

Have you ever had a night where you just want a simple elegant meal with no fuss, and no mess? After watching another tear-filled episode of Oprah’s Big Give (it’s kind of like Apprentice, but here contestants are judged on the merits of their giving) I was in the “no fuss, no mess” zone. I opened the fridge and saw a lonely bag of asparagus needing to be eaten. Hmm...what to do with it? I opened The Garden of Vegan cookbook and found what looked like a fairly easy recipe. A quick glance at the the ingredients, got an inspiration, and then promptly put the book away. (recipe books tend to inspire me to make things, but I’m not big on following recipes…must be my rebellious nature;)) With a vision in mind I got ready to make a yummy meal. Firstly, I got ready to blanch the asparagus for a few minutes. If you’ve never done it before, don’t worry, it’s super easy! Blanching 101 According to Wikipedia: Blanching is a cooking term that describes a process of food preparation wherein the food substance, usually a vegetable or fruit, is plunged into boiling water, removed after a brief, timed interval and finally plunged into iced water or placed under cold running water (shocked) to halt the cooking process. I put the asparagus in boiling water for about 3 min. Now, I made a mistake…I was in such a rush to eat that I didn’t peel the outer skin of the asparagus. If you want the vegetable to be really soft and easy to bite into, then take a veggie peeler and lightly take off the outer skin of the asparagus. It has a lot of cellulose in it so it tends to be tough. In my kitchen, there are no wrong decisions, so the choice is yours. 1 bunch asparagus 1-2 sprays of canola oil (or enough to coat pan) 2 garlic cloves 1 small handful of parsley, chopped 1-2 green onions (just the top green part) salt & pepper to taste While the asparagus was cooking, I minced the garlic cloves and lightly fried them with 2 sprays of canola oil, I like my food to be low fat, so I spray oil onto my pan so that it spreads out evenly and I end up using less oil. I then added parsley and some green onions and sautéed them as well. Halfway through the process, I added a few tablespoons of water and sautéed the veggies. (basically it’s like using oil, but you just pretend that the water is oil…just use your imagination!) As soon as the asparagus was blanched, I added it to the garlic mixture and cooked it with the rest of the flavors for a few more minutes. At this point, you can add salt and pepper to taste and it’s ready to eat! The food was so good that after I ate what you saw in the picture above, my husband quickly gulped down the rest of the asparagus. When I went for seconds, there was none left! Beware of hungry people finishing off this meal before you. So don't be shy...go ahead and pile on the asparagus before it piles into someone else's stomach!

Quinoa “Mongolian BBQ” Style

Today, I was up for a really quick meal and I realized that we only had a little bit of red quinoa and “normal” quinoa left in the pantry. So we decided to mix them together. Since today was the day my husband and I are suppose to make our dinner together, I gave him the duty of making the quinoa since it was easy. (oh and I got him to clean all the dishes too.. wohooo!) Quinoa (pronounced Keen-wah) is a very light grain that is very high in protein. If you’ve never had quinoa before, it is a great replacement for rice and it has a unique nutty flavor. It’s like no other grain! Since I was feeling lazy (what else is new?) I decided to just make a simple quinoa salad Mongolian BBQ style. For those of you who have never been to this restaurant, basically you just pick a bunch of veggies, sauces and other toppings at a buffet table and give it to a chef who cooks it right before your eyes. So inspired by this concept, I put all these ingredients below out on our counter and we picked the ingredients we wanted and mixed it with quinoa. I used all of the ingredients as I thought they all went well together. It made a delicious salad! So next time you want to prepare a quick meal, take some quinoa and load up on some veggies and some of the sauces I’ve suggested in the diagram below, and most likely you won’t go wrong. 1 cup quinoa 2 cups water or veggie broth Wash the quinoa at least twice to get the naturally occurring coating off the grain. This coating can make the quinoa really bitter. I remember spitting out the grain when I first tired cooking it! Believe me you don’t want to make that same mistake! Then, boil the quinoa with water and when it starts to boil, lower the temperature to a simmer and cook for about 20-25 minutes or until you get the desired consistency. (some people like it crunchy and others like myself, like it well cooked) If you are always on the go, then the next time you are making quinoa (or any grain for that matter) make double the amount and freeze the extra. Then, when you are in a hurry, you’ll have a great base for any meal.