20 February 2013

Random stir-fry over quinoa w/ nutty orange-miso drizzle

Here's a very vibrant, light yet filling little fusion dish (a bit of quinoa from South America, a sauce that combines Southeast Asian and Japanese styles into an almost tahini-like substance, although not as thick, thus adding a Middle Eastern kick, especially when combined with the chickpeas). Yeah, I hate the word fusion too, but this is actually pretty tasty all in all. It's been very, ridiculously broadly adapted from this recipe at Vegetarian Times. It also doesn't take all that long to make compared to some of the stuff I've posted here. You can make everything else pretty much by the time the quinoa has finished simmering and cooling.

2/3 cup   quinoa
1 tbsp   almond butter*
2 tsp   peanut butter**
1 tbsp   orange juice
2 tsp   white miso paste
2 tsp   grated fresh ginger
1 tsp   powdered garlic (or 1 clove of garlic, minced)
2 tsp   canola oil
1/3 15 oz. can   chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 tsp   diced white onion
dash   salt
dash   pepper
tiny drop   liquid smoke
~10   peeled baby carrots, chopped into half-moons
1/4 cup   frozen sweet baby peas
2 tsp   nutritional yeast flakes (pretty optional)

*I had some homemade stuff lying around for this, made in a food processor with almonds, canola and olive oils, salt, a bit of molasses, and icing sugar, and possibly more stuff I'm forgetting, but any brand of almond butter would likely work well. 
**I only added the peanut butter because I didn't have much almond butter left over. It tasted great, but feel free to substitute more almond butter for the peanut butter.

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Bring 1 cup salted, oiled water to a boil. Stir in quinoa, cover, and reduce heat to medium-low. Let simmer for 15-18 minutes, until water has been absorbed. Remove from heat and let stand for 5 minutes.

While that's simmering, prepare your orange-almond-miso sauce. Stir together almond butter, peanut butter, orange juice, miso paste, ginger, and garlic until well-blended. Stir in about 1/8 cup water. Set aside for now.

Heat frying pan over high heat until a drop of water placed therein evaporates after one second. Add canola oil and swirl to coat the pan. Add onions, salt, pepper, and liquid smoke. Cook until onions are soft and ever-so-slightly golden. Add chickpeas and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Add baby carrots and stir-fry for another 2 minutes. Add peas and stir-fry for--you guessed it--2 minutes! Remove from heat.

Empty the quinoa into a large bowl and fluff it up a bit, then top with the stir-fried veggies, drizzling orange-almond-miso sauce evenly over top. Stir it all together and enjoy. Feel free to season with further salt and pepper as desired, as well as nutritional yeast flakes.

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