Vegan Quinoa & Black Beans

So a few weeks ago, I bought this gigantic bag of organic quinoa at Costco.  Considering that I've never really cooked with quinoa before, I was hesitant to get started, so I put if off and off and off!  NOT TODAY.  I finally did something with it!  Since I've been attempting to eat vegan before six over the past few weeks, I thought this would be a perfect way to keep on track.  I googled "quinoa recipes" and I came across this one that had a great mixture of all my favorite flavors.  Black Beans? yes.  Corn? yes.  CUMIN?  Alright, sign me up!


Vegan Quinoa & Black Beans

courtesy of Allrecipes.com by quinnstitch.blogspot.com
yield: about 4 cups

[printable recipe]

Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 onion, chopped

1/4 cup + 2 tbsp quinoa

3/4 cup vegetable broth (or water, if need be)

1/2 tsp cumin

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

salt & pepper to taste

1/3 cup frozen corn (or fresh from the cob)

1 can black beans, rinsed

1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
the juice of 1/2 lime

Instructions

1. Heat oil in pan over medium heat.  Add onions and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes.  Add garlic after a couple of minutes.  

2. Rinse quinoa.  Add quinoa to pan and cook with onions for about 1-2 minutes.  

3. Add broth to pan.  Add spices.  Bring to boil.  Turn to low, cover & simmer for about 20 minutes.

4. Add corn to pan, mix in and cook for a few more minutes.

5. Add rinsed black beans.  Stir and cook for a couple more minutes until heated.

6. Remove from heat and stir in chopped cilantro. Sprinkle with lime juice.

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How to make: Chicken Tortilla Chili

Today I am going to continue my series of making use of cooking an entire chicken.  Previously I detailed the actual chicken roasting process here, and followed that up with how to make your own chicken stock here.  So at this point, you should have extra chicken left over from your bird, as well as some stock.  With those two ingredients, we will be making a soup of my own concoction, Chicken Tortilla Chili.

I really came up with this soup because 1) I was hungry and needed to make dinner, 2) I had a random assortment of ingredients that wasn't quite chili and wasn't quite tortilla soup either So I came up with this hybrid of sorts, and it wasn't half bad!  In fact, it was DELICIOUS.

Gather your ingredients:

Chicken Tortilla Chili

Cooked chicken (pre-cook it or use leftover chicken)

Chicken Stock (one can or homemade, enough to have enough liquid)

   Optional: Add water if you're out of stock and add a chicken bullion tablet

2 16 oz cans chili (kidney) beans or pinto beans, drained

2 16 oz cans of diced tomatoes (or 1 32 oz can)

1 8oz can of tomato paste

half an onion, chopped

2-3 garlic cloves

handful to a bunch of chopped cilantro

frozen corn (or canned, if you have it)

any other veggies you'd like to throw in, green pepper, celery, hot peppers, etc.

~1 cup corn flour masa

Spices:  feel free to go crazy with the spices, whatever tastes good to you, measurements are just guidelines (I normally just start adding stuff willy nilly), add things to taste.

     1/2 to 1 tsp Salt 

     1/2 tsp Pepper, 

     2 tsp Cumin, 

     1 tsp Garlic power, 

     1 tsp Onion Powder, 

     1 tsp Coriander, 

     1/2 - 1 tsp Cayenne Pepper (however much heat you want!)

Directions:  Put all of this stuff in a pot, simmer it for awhile (~15-20 minutes), garnish with cilantro or cheese, eat.

And don't forget to notice the delightful flavor brought on by the masa.  Secret ingredient!!!

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