Butternut Kalenoa?
Seat-of-the-pants cooking!
Apparently, I cook like I write.
Let me explain. No, that would take too long. Let me summarize. There are two types of fiction writers, plotters and pantsers. Plotters plan their books out ahead of time with detailed synopses, charts, outlines, even index cards. Pantsers just start writing and see where it goes, flying by the seats of their pants, so to speak. I’m a pantser. I generally just dive in and see where the story takes me.
But it’s not really that I don’t plot. It’s that I don’t plot consciously. Somewhere deep down, the girls in the basement of my mind know what they’re doing.
Turns out, it’s the same with cooking. One day my brian just wanted to make quinoa. I’ve never liked the stuff—the texture bothered me. But then again, I hadn’t had it in years, and my tastes have changed entirely since I’ve been eating a truly healthy diet. ( As opposed to what we’ve been told our entire lives is a healthy diet, which is in fact, a carcinogenic, slow death diet.) Anyway, I had some quinoa in the cupboard waiting for the right moment and the moment had come. Inspiration had arrived. So I made the quinoa, and just kept going, pantsing my way to what my husband said was his new favorite meal. Here’s what I came up with.
Butternut Kale Quinoa Bowl
1 cup quinoa
2 cups water
1/2 butternut squash, peeled & diced
About 2 cups kale, stemmed and chopped
1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup edamame (soy beans) cooked (if canned, then drained and rinsed.)
3/4 cup terayaki sauce
Terayaki Sauce
You can use a favorite brand (after checking the ingredients) or, my preference, make the version in the Engine 2 Cookbook, linked below. This is the first cookbook to buy, I swear. I’m not only linking the cookbook, but also a video of the author’s mom and sister making this same sauce to marinade tofu, another excellent idea I plan to try today.
Method
Rinse the quinoa well in a fine mesh strainer, and put it into a pan with 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, cover, and let it cook until all water is absorbed.
This was my first attempt at quinoa, and I was so surprised by the way the tiny little grains suddenly became all puffy and round. It happens quickly, and I don’t think mine took the full 20 minutes, so keep an eye on it.
While the quinoa is cooking, place the well-rinsed, stemmed, and coarsley chopped kale into a steaming basket over boiling water and cover.
Let it steam for a few minutes, then pour in the diced butternut squash. Cover the steamer and let the veggies steam until tender, but not soft. You do not want mushy veggies, so stop the cooking just prior to what you think is totally done. The squash should be just barely fork tender. Butternut squash tends to get very soft very quickly, so poke it with a fork every few minutes to be sure.
Put the cooked squash and kale mixture into a saucepan. Add the drained, rinsed with pinto beans and cooked soybeans, and heat through. You don’t need to season them. The terayaki sauce is and some cracked pepper are all the seasoning required.
I only added the soybeans because they were leftover from the night before. Also, I think I’m going to boycott calling them endamame on principle instead of admitting I forget how to pronounce it within 2 minutes of learnign how to pronounce it. So, soybeans. And aren’t they pretty little things?
Serving Suggestion
Use a wide bowl. Place a small sauce bowl in its center. Scoop quinoa into one area, then the mixed vegetables into the remaining space.
Alternatively, one could keep the beans separate and make three sections in the bowl, one for the quinoa, one for the kale & butternut squash, and one for the soy and pinto beans. That might be even prettier.
Grind some fresh pepper over the veggies and garnish with sesame seeds.
Fill the little dish in the center with a few tablespoons of the terrayaki sauce.
Use a spoon to drizzle the sauce over the quinoa and veggies, then get a little bit of everything on your fork, and mwah! Chef’s kiss!
Here’s that cookbook link. I recommend the paperback. I dislike cooking with ebooks.
And here’s the recipe demo for the sauce. I recommended these ladies’ excllent cookbook too, linked below the video here.
The two books above use my Amazon Affiliate Links, which means Amazon sends me a few cents from each purchase, but does NOT charge you a single penny more.
GOT BOOKS?
