Posts Tagged by quinoa

‘Sour Cream’ Fudge Cupcakes

May 22, 2010 Posted by Lauren under Desserts, HOTR Eats
14 Comments

{First I just want to thank you all for the wonderful, supportive responses to my sister’s guest post about her experience in Haiti. I’m so very proud of all that she’s done. If you haven’t read it yet, I really encourage you to check it out!

Secondly, I was so happy to get enthusiastic responses to the Core Shape Up Summer Challenge! I’m going to give this a little thought, and then set an official start date for the challenge, as well as the less-than-official guidelines. I’ll keep you updated.}

Last week while I was at home, I was excited to find a new (to me) product in my Mom’s kitchen: Quinoa flour.

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I love quinoa. I’ve talked before about it’s benefits as a complete protein, and since I’ve tried both quinoa as a grain and quinoa pasta, I figured it was about time to try out the flour.

And what better way to experiment with flour than to bake something delicious! When I saw the recipe on the back of the bag for Sour Cream Fudge Cupcakes, I immediately knew what I’d be making.

The only major substitution I made to the recipe was to use Greek yogurt instead of sour cream. Mostly because we didn’t have any sour cream in the house. But did you know that plain Greek yogurt is actually a really good, healthy substitution for sour cream? Now, we also didn’t have any plain yogurt. The closest flavor we had to plain was honey – so that’s what I used.

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I almost cut back on the amount of sugar the recipe called for since there’s sugar in the yogurt, but then I remembered my almost tasteless vegan brownies, and decided against it. In the end, I was really glad I did.

‘Sour Cream’ Fudge Cupcakes (Gluten-free)

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DSC_0423 [Slightly adapted from recipe on back of Bob’s Red Mill Quinoa Flour bag]

Makes 12 Cupcakes

  • ¼ c unsalted butter
  • ½ c water
  • ¼ c cocoa powder
  • 1 c sugar (I used Florida Crystals Pure Cane Sugar)
  • 1 ¼ c Quinoa Flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill)
  • ½ tsp. baking powder
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 2 eggs, separated
  • ½ tsp vanilla
  • ¼ c Greek Yogurt (I used Chobani Honey Flavored)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line your tray with cupcakes liners.

In a small saucepan, bring the butter and water to a boil. Once the mixture is boiling, whisk in your cocoa powder and set aside to cool.

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Next, whisk together the quinoa flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl. Set aside.

A quick note about quinoa flour – it smells really quinoa-y. As in, as soon as you open the bag, you can smell the grain. I have to admit that this made me a little nervous. I know I said I love quinoa, but I also love when my cupcakes actually taste like cupcakes…and not like dinner.

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But, I decided to trust the process, and soldiered on.

Separate the eggs, setting the whites aside. Add the yolks to a large bowl, along with the sugar, vanilla, and Greek yogurt. Mix well. Slowly stir in the flour and cocoa mixtures.

Beat your egg whites until stiff and then fold into batter. At this point, the smell of quinoa was less overwhelming, but this batter definitely smelled different than that of “normal” cupcakes.

Finally, spoon the batter into a cupcake tray and bake for 20 – 25 minutes. You’ll know they’re done when you stick a knife in the center and it comes out clean.

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Now, I’m sure these are perfectly tasty on their own. But cupcakes without frosting are…well…muffins. And I wanted cupcakes.

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So it was time to whip up a batch of simple chocolate butter cream frosting. This is where all semblance of this dessert actually being healthy went out the window.

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To make the frosting, I used the leftover Greek yogurt, 1/2 a stick of butter, powdered sugar, cocoa, and a couple capfuls of half & half creamer. I beat this with an electric mixer until it was nice and fluffy, and then spread generously onto the cupcakes.

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The Final Verdict: Fortunately, the end product did not taste like quinoa. :) The cupcakes were really light and fluffy. Even with the abundance of frosting, they didn’t taste heavy or overly rich.

However, you could definitely tell they weren’t made with good old all-purpose flour. I think I would have liked them to be a little denser, and just a little moister. They didn’t exactly deliver on the fudgey-ness that the name promised. (Maybe adding a little more Greek yogurt would fix this?) So if you’re looking for a rich, fudgey dessert, these are probably not the cupcakes for you.

That being said, I still thought they were a great treat, and (added bonus) the whole family liked them too. So I declared the quinoa flour experiment to be a success!

Quinoa Pasta and Other Adventures in Eating

April 26, 2010 Posted by Lauren under Dinner, HOTR Eats, Nutrition
11 Comments

It can be  so easy to get stuck in a “food rut” and eat the same dishes over and over, week after week.  But part of consuming a wholesome, balanced diet is allowing yourself to try a variety of foods. Yes, this means that sometimes your “food adventure” will be a complete failure and you’ll end up hating whatever you made.  But other times, you might stumble across something amazing!

Over this past week, I’ve tried to be a bit more adventurous with my eating, and have experimented with some new things that I thought I’d share with all of you.

Quinoa Pasta

800px-Harvested_seeds_of_homegrown_Chenopodium_quinoa Quinoa (pronounced: keen-wah) is a wonderful food.  Not only is it gluten-free (read: easily digestible), but it is also contains a balanced set of all 9 essential amino acids, making it a complete protein.  And if that weren’t enough, it’s also high in dietary fiber, phosphorous, magnesium, and iron.  All the nutrition packed into quinoa makes it a great addition to any diet, regardless of whether or not you eat meat (you can read more about the health benefits here).

By itself, quinoa is a little bland tasting.  To add flavor, I usually cook it in vegetable broth and then load it up with tons of sautéed veggies and herbs/spices.  I actually think it makes a great base for flavorful dishes.

So…when I came across quinoa pasta in the grocery store a few days ago, I knew I had to give it a try!

IMG_0388 The Quinoa “Supergrain” Rotelle is actually a blend of corn flour and quinoa flour (in fact, it is made from only those two ingredients).  While I’m not gluten intolerant, I thought this might be a good break from my usual starch-filled pasta dishes.

To test it, I whipped up my “fall back” pasta dish: sautéed veggies with my Dad’s “secret-recipe homemade marinara sauce.”  (Okay, so the recipe isn’t really secret, it just sounds more mysterious that way. ;) )  In my opinion, my Dad makes THE BEST marinara sauce I’ve ever had.  He follows a recipe given to him by my dear Italian great-grandmother.  Every time I go home for a visit, he is kind enough to make up a huge batch and then can it so that I can take it back to RI with me.  As a result of being so spoiled, I haven’t bought pasta sauce in years (nor do I want to!).

Anyway, I digress.  Back to the Quinoa Rotelle.

When cooked, the Rotelle was a little more yellow than regular noodles – similar in color to egg noodles.

IMG_1768As far as taste goes: I thought it was pretty good!  The noodles were a bit chewier than normal pasta, and while the taste was slightly different, it was hard to tell after I smothered it with sauce and other veggies.

IMG_0396 IMG_0395 In the mix:

  • Dad’s Marinara Sauce
  • Spinach
  • Cherry tomatoes
  • Mushrooms
  • Tempeh
  • And topped with parmesan cheese

While the overall taste was pretty good, I’ll admit that I did find myself missing the starchiness of normal pasta.  There was nothing unpleasant about it at all, I just found myself wanting it to be different.  So the final verdict: Despite the motto on the box that claims “you’ll never go back to plain noodles again,” I think I’ll stick to eating quinoa as a grain and my pasta with flour.  However, I would definitely recommend this as a good alternative for anyone who is trying to cut back on or avoid gluten.

Other Noteworthy New Foods

Parsnips

Before last week, I had never even tried a parsnip…nor had I wanted to.  But after seeing the recipe Angela posted for nut-butter coated parsnip fries, I was intrigued.  A few days later, I impulsively bought a bunch of parsnips (who does that!?) and cooked myself up a batch.

I’ll admit I burned a couple in the process. ;)

IMG_0398But these were absolutely amazing!! So simple to make and so addictive.

IMG_0400I may have put the cold {slightly burnt”) leftovers on a salad the next day for lunch.  Delicious! :)

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Maple-Coconut Tempeh

I’ve talked about tempeh several times before on the blog, so it won’t be surprising when I tell you that I love it.  However, I’ve only ever had it savory.  So once I saw Caitlin’s “Tempting Tempeh” recipe, I knew I had to try it!  As promised, not only was this recipe super easy, but it was also incredibly delicious.  It was like eating a snack for dinner!

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And finally, my new favorite snack:

IMG_1761These Back to Nature Organic Stoneground Wheat Crackers are nothing short of amazing! They are super flavorful and contain no trans fat, hydrogenated oils, preservatives, artificial flavors, or any of other questionable crap.  I found them in the organic section of my local grocery store and they were actually cheaper than the more popular Kashi version.

This week I challenge you to try at least ONE new food that you haven’t before – whether it’s something you’ve always been afraid you wouldn’t like, or just a food you’ve been interested in but have yet to try. My next food “adventure”: Kale.  I have heard great things about it’s nutritional benefits, but the super potent taste has always scared me a bit.  So I plan on cooking up some kale chips and trying it in salad this week.  I’ll report back later with the results! ;)