Mediterranean cuisine is one of my favorites. It feels so fresh and clean and tastes like spring. I created this after spotting a great advertisement by Udi's for their sundried tomato artichoke pizza.
If you're looking to increase the vegetables in way that tastes great, reduce the wheat, have a "perfect protein", and leave feeling clean and full of energy, this is for you!
One thing we are working hard on doing is identifying foods that can be used in small amounts to deliver a big taste. Goat cheese is one of those foods. It is also a food that is a staple of "gourmet" cuisine. Of course we are here to help give you recipes to lose weight and get more energy.
But if we also teach you some great "gourmet" skills, that will be an added benefit!
Luckily my mother in law is one of the world's best cooks, and she has taught me over the years how to make healthy food dishes that not only taste great, but that impress your friends. Who among us does not want to make something for friends or guests and have them say "what is this, I HAVE to get this recipe."
That is a pretty tall order, but that is our new goal with our recipes! Seems like fun at least.
- 1 can of fresh artichoke hearts
- 15 sun dried tomatoes (quartered)
- 1 Quart of cooked quinoa
- 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
- 3 cloves chopped garlic (if you'd like to get fancy and have an extra 25 minutes, 8 cloves of roasted garlic, slice off the top and roast at 400 for 25 min. Or buy pre roasted))
- 1/2 cup of basil leaves
- Few shakes of crushed red pepper
- Salt to taste
- Optional: 1 ounce of crumbled goat cheese
- Optional: Finely chop spinach, Kale, Bok Choy in the Cuisinart, and add it to help reach your 1/2 pound green goal for the day. Maybe you don't want to do this for company or friends. But it fits in very easily.
Prepare quinoa according to pkg. It's usually 1 cup of quinoa to 2 cups of water. I highly recommend preparing in the rice cooker
If you don't have a rice cooker just bring the water to a boil, add the quinoa, reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 15-17 minutes until it is fluffy.
While quinoa is cooking, place artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes, chopped spinach/kale, olive oil, garlic, few shakes of red pepper flakes in mixing bowl. When quinoa is finished, add to bowl. Then add a pinch of salt and goat cheese! It is DELICIOUS!
Important Note: Quinoa Is EASY To Buy and EASY To Make:
All Whole Foods have it. Safeway has it. You can get it at Wal Mart.
This link takes you to a page on the WalMart website where you can enter in your zip, and they will show you the nearest store where it is in stock.
You can also order it via Amazon. Very easy to buy, easy to make, and is a power food.
If you're following the PEERtrainer Cheat System, it's about 2 Cheats
for the entire recipe!
Click here to learn about the health benefits of Quinoa
This sounds yummy like all of your recipes. It would be great if youir recipe pages had a print button to print just the recipe. Would be much more user friendly that way. I love your green soup recipe (the one with coconut milk). It is so delicious and filling and green. Thanks.
Posted by: rs | 03/05/2011 at 12:06 PM
We will poke around for that print button. Thanks for the suggestion.
Posted by: PEERtrainer | 03/05/2011 at 12:26 PM
This looks delish. I'm going to give it a try. I love quinoa, and just stocked up on it because it's on sale right now at our "Whole Paycheck" store. Yes I also love the green energy soup. Whenever I've shared the soup with friends, they've always asked for the recipe and they go home and make it themselves. Of course, I give you credit for it and tell them to check out your site.
Plus, I got my daily chuckle from this post -- was it a spell-check thing or did you mean to talk about "extra version olive oil"?
Posted by: Cheryl Soshnik | 03/05/2011 at 03:27 PM
Have tried the energy soup and the imperial chicken salad. Both are keepers and I'll make them often.
After the chicken salad for supper, had no case of the munchies that evening. Made a nice breakfast the next day with little snacking during the day.
Ended up losing eight pounds this past week, my goal is one per week, and I finally broke 200, weighing in at 198.
Posted by: Vincent Harriman | 03/05/2011 at 05:44 PM
Vincent, nice job!
Posted by: PEERtrainer | 03/05/2011 at 06:56 PM
How many servings does this make?
Posted by: Cyndi | 03/05/2011 at 07:05 PM
Did you mean 1 cup quinoa instead of 1 pound? 1 pound would make much more than is needed for this recipe, wouldn't it?
Posted by: Emmy | 03/06/2011 at 09:11 AM
Can anybody point me to the PT page where ALL the recipes are listed?
Posted by: Jules | 03/06/2011 at 12:14 PM
Central Market also sells quinoa in bulk. In fact, they sell different kinds of quinoa, too. I love quinoa, and this recipe sounds amazing.
Posted by: Ca Adam | 03/11/2011 at 03:44 PM
I made this recipe tonight and it was great! My first time to try quinoa and I'm hooked.
However, I also questioned the amount of quinoa it calls for, and searched for the answer online but didn't find it. You realize that one pound of quinoa is equal to about 3 cups of dry quinoa? It made a TON of cooked quinoa, so I just used a portion of it to mix with the other ingredients. The rest I will use throughout the week in other recipes, I guess.
Can you clarify the amount of quinoa, and how many servings this is intended to serve? Thanks!
Posted by: Vicki | 03/12/2011 at 10:16 PM