Happy Wednesday! I’m still major de-load from my trip to Adobe MAX (which I’m still writing about — slowest blogger ever award please), but I wanted to pass along the recipe for the awesome quinoa salad Neil put together for our BBQ at CrossFit this weekend. It was a complete hit, so much so that we made another batch the next day and took it to my parents for Mother’s Day dinner.
We found the original recipe via Pinterest, and then tweaked it a bit to make it more “us.” I think the other version would obviously be equally as good, but I’m partial to the addition of bacon in ours.
Ingredients
¾ cup uncooked quinoa
5 or 6 strips of uncured bacon, cooked and chopped
1-2 cups shredded red cabbage
1 red bell pepper, diced
½ red onion, diced
1 cup shredded carrots
½ cup chopped cilantro
¼ cup diced green onions
½ cup cashew halves
Squeeze of fresh lime
Dressing:
¼ cup all natural almond butter
2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
3 tablespoon Dr. Braggs Liquid Aminos
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon coconut sugar
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon rice vinegar
Water to thin, if necessary
Directions:
- In a mesh strainer, rinse quinoa thoroughly with cold water until the water runs clear. Bring a 1 1/2 cups of water to a boil and then add quinoa. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes or until quinoa has absorbed all of the water. After 15 minutes remove quinoa from heat and put in a large bowl and toss to help cool. Allow to cool for 10 minutes.
- If you did not cook the bacon beforehand, now is a good time to fry it up until crunchy/chopp-able.
- Heat dressing ingredients in a small saucepan over medium-high heat until smooth. Mix dressing in with the cooled quinoa until thoroughly combined, adding water to thin if necessary.
- Add all of the vegetable ingredients and bacon to the dressed quinoa and fold over to mix so that the dressing coats evenly.Add cashews and fold over again until combined. Cool thoroughly in the refrigerator before serving.
It’s the perfect summer cold salad. It’s packed full of veggies and flavor and it complements other dishes as well. I haven’t made a ton of things I’ve found via Pinterest, despite pinning nearly everything in sight lately, but I’m so happy I gave this a try. So with that being said…
Have you found any Pinterest gems lately?
I’ve had this lofty idea in my head for the past few weeks. That taking this new job and working from home would allow me the opportunity to return to regular, or at least somewhat more frequent food blogging. Things were so jam-packed at my last job that I barely had time to think or plan meals beyond the standard equation of seared/baked meat + steamed/baked vegetable(s) = paleo-friendly meal. Mind you, it’s an equation that works, we feel great, but it doesn’t exactly keep people coming back.
So as I’m slowly settling in and getting back into the groove of actually planning our meals, I thought I’d share something we’ve been doing lately — enjoying our summer veggies in the crock pot.
It’s always been my natural tendency to forget about my crock pot during the summer. In my mind it’s for stews, chilis, roasts and the like, all fall/winter meals. However, as I’m trying to maximize summer days, I’m learning the crock pot can be quite handy in the summertime as well, especially when you consume vegetables en masse the way we do. This easy recipe makes ample use of all the summer veggies we can’t get enough of, and one crock can last us 3-4 meals.
Ingredients:
2 large bell peppers, any color, seeded and cut into strips
2 large red onions, cut into wedges (you can go with one if you’re not that much of a fan and just add a different veggie)
2 medium-sized yellow summer squash, sliced thick
2 medium-sized zucchini, ends trimmed and cut into strips (I like to vary the shapes for diversity)
5 ounces fresh green beans, ends snapped
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1-3 tablespoons coconut oil/olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil (from the garden!)
3 tablespoons fresh flat-leaf parsley (from the garden!)
2-4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
- Place vegetables in the slow cooker. Add oil, basil and season with salt and pepper, then toss to coat evenly. Cover and cook on high until vegetables are tender but still hold shape, around 1 1/2-2 hours.
- Serve sprinkled with parsley and additional balsamic vinegar if desired.
Makes 6-ish servings. Note: Made with a 5-quart crock pot, so scale as necessary.
I made the veggies, Neil made the steak. As you can see, I had a little too much enthusiasm with my veggie chopping and overstuffed the crock. Luckily it settled down a bit with cooking. It was so good that I consciously ate slower to savor each bite. Eating healthy is such a sacrifice sometimes haha.
Another meal inspired by a food show, that just happened to coincide nicely with a grocery store sale on sweet corn. We watched Anthony Bourdain cover Cajun Country over the weekend, and were practically drooling over the corn hash, which can be seen here at about minute 5:40 or so. A simple hash of fresh corn, chopped chiles, bell peppers, pork and cayenne — we simply could not resist!
Please note while corn is not considered “Paleo” so if you are strict Paleo you can easily substitute the sweet corn for sweet potatoes and yield the same sweet taste!
Directions:
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1 pound of ground pork or ground pork sausage
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 teaspoons cayenne pepper
3 ears of sweet corn, boiled or grilled and sliced from the ear (or sub 1 medium sweet potato chopped/steamed)
2 bell peppers, chopped
1 head of cauliflower, grated
3 eggs
2 tablespoons Dr. Braggs Liquid Aminos (optional)
1 tablespoon spicy mustard (optional)
Homemade sriracha sauce (optional)
Directions:
- Add one tablespoon of coconut oil to a large skillet and melt over medium-high heat. Add ground pork and cook through.
- Add grated cauliflower and mix with pork. Cook for five minutes and add 1 tablespoon of Dr. Braggs. Cook for 5 minutes.
- Add green peppers and corn and cook for an additional 5 minutes. Add remaining tablespoon of coconut oil, spicy mustard and the final tablespoon of Dr. Braggs. Sprinkle cayenne pepper over hash and stir.
- Add eggs and stir. Continue to cook until the eggs are cooked through. Serve hot and spicy (to taste).
Makes 6 servings.
Super easy and quick to put together as well as something you can easily customize with anything you have in your veggie stash. If you are strict Paleo, substitute a sweet potato for a little sweet and some good post-workout recovery eats! Can’t wait for leftovers tonight!
This hash makes me so excited for produce season. While we ate plenty of veggies before going Paleo, I feel like we nearly eat our weight in them now, and the diversity and creativity with which we use them has grown exponentially over the past 8 months.
Which summer fruit or veggie are you most excited for?
Note: While this recipe is gluten-free, it’s not fully Paleo. If you’re interested in a Paleo hash, check out our Sweet Potato Hash!
