The Vegan Club

A private club for vegans to meet and relax in a (finally) cruelty free safe zone. Recipes, life stories, ideas... enter in the Club to find out!

Friday, June 30, 2006

Quinoa Contest Winner!

And the winner is.... drum roll... Dori!
Congratulations to Dori for her California Quinoa Rolls, recipe with which she wins our very first contest!
This recipe really caught the voters eye for its originality: who would have thought to use quinoa to make Sushi?? As someone said, South America meets Asia, and the meeting is a flavourful indeed!

Truly deserved compliments to EVERYONE who entered! Every single recipe (see them all here) was mouthwatering good (we tried virtually all of them and they were terrific! Now the quinoa is over and our stomachs are totally satisfied!) and easy to follow too! No kitchen disaster while following any of them (and if nothing happened while WE cooked, you are pretty dead sure these recipes are dumb proof and terribly delicious) so you are very encouraged to try them out!
Thanks a lot to every participant for the great work!
To everyone who entered, please drop us an email for your well deserved price! Buttons (and blog makeover for Dori) are just a click away!

Now we definitey do not have any excuse to forget Quinoa in the cupboard!
To everyone who was motivated to buy some by these recipes, please remember to buy a kind which support fair trade: quinoa is a typical product of the Andean region and it is mostly grown in Peru', Bolivia and Ecuador. These countries are all considered as belonging to the Third World and also they rank between the worst in the global poverty scale, especially Bolivia: Boliva, Peru' and Ecuador sit in the list of the 35 poorest countries in the world, and they are together with other 2 South American countries and 30 African nations, the target of the Live 8 manifestation and movement happened on July 2nd 2005.
One of the people involved with The Vegan Club has been to those countries and the poverty which can be seen there is just painfully striking.
Quinoa is a great product to buy Fair Trade, since it is still mostly produced in those countries and, differently from cocoa for example, it is not yet a widespread product in the West, making choices easier: please help support Fair Trade. It can help one family, a female group or farmers, the building of a school (you can learn something more here).

This is the winning recipe, posted here as it appears on Dori's blog. Read here her original entry for more images and her own comments!

Dori's Winning California Quinoa Sushi Rolls

RICE MAKER MIXTURE
-2/3 C quinoa grain,
-3 Tbsp red split lentils (opt),
-1/4 C seasoned rice vinegar (it's sweet),
-3/4 tsp salt,
-about 1 cup diced veggies (4 shredded baby carrots, chopped canned mushrooms, and shallots sliced thin),
-1 1/3 C water.

PREPARATION
I made my quinoa in the rice maker. It took 20 minutes using a 1 part grain 2 part water ratio and salt. I am SO very impressed. This is a non allergen for my son and high in protein and has so many other benefits I don't know why I haven't used this grain sooner. I really like this stuff and these ecclectic sushi rolls I made with it. Click on and wait about 20 minutes, use when freshly done (while the grains are still somewhat wet and clumpy a little, after a bit they will separate to be more like a pilaf grain). Oh, don't use a cheap (non high temp) "rubber" spatula to get the grains out of the rice maker pot. I'm not telling why or posting pictures.
I was so happy to FINALLY pull out the bamboo mat that I got for Christmas last year (along with a book titled sushi for dummies). I scooped about 1/3 C quinoa grain onto my 1/2 sheet seaweed. Laid 2 thin sliced carrot, celery, and mushroom onto it and rolled. After making 4 rolls, slice into 1/4 - 1/2"pieces with a very sharp jagged knife. Here they are served with a side of my homemade pickled ginger (thanks for a food network pointer from amy's comfort kitchen) and Newman's Lite Sesame Ginger dressing. I really didn't think I liked this dressing until I dipped one of these into it and then decided to make a salad from the leftover quinoa. I added about 2 cups more chopped, shredded, or diced veggies to it and 1/4 cup of the newman's dressing. I will do this again. Good stuff, just don't expect to frig them and eat them later, they seem to dry out.

HOMEMADE PICKLED GINGER
-2 cups rice wine vinegar
-1 tablespoon salt
-1/2 cup sugar (or sub 1/2 tsp KAL brand stevia extract powder)
-1 small red beet, peeled and halved
-2 bay leaves
-1/2 tablespoon white peppercorns
-2 cups ginger slices, peeled (1/8-inch thick)

PREPARATION
Combine everything but ginger in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Add ginger and turn heat down to a simmer for 1/2 an hour. Pull off heat and let stand until cool, about 1 hour. Place in jar and refrigerate overnight. Will keep for 1 month. Weird maybe, but I've been throwing some slices of this into my salad, topping with some lemon juice, sweetener, salt and pepper. I'm not raving about it, but it was pleasingly different. Maybe a little coconut will take this salad to the thai extreme.

8 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Congratulations, Dori !!!! :D
Thanx for the pickeld ginger recipe, 'cause I've used to buy mine at the chinese store.
:D

9:39 am  
Blogger Dori said...

Yeah Me! I'll be getting aholf of you sometime this week, T ... I am 4th vacationing right now.

7:40 pm  
Blogger MeloMeals said...

Yay Dori! The pickled ginger recipe alone is worth a win here! I can't wait to make it.

1:04 am  
Blogger urban vegan said...

congrats to Dorai--and to all your crazy quinoa kidzzzz....

3:21 am  
Blogger funwithyourfood said...

good job! : )

Teddy

6:51 am  
Blogger Virginie said...

My compliments Dori. You deserve it with your no less than 3 recipes entries (including the pickled ginger). Enjoy your holidays !
I can't wait your new blog design.

1:54 pm  
Blogger Carla said...

mmm, quinoa!

6:10 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I make quinoa sushi too, and sometimes I add a bit of quinoa flour and vinegar to the mix to make it pastier so it sticks better.. sooo tasty...

6:46 pm  

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