asparagus, chickpeas and pesto

Nat was away for work last night. He had an overnight trip to Cradle Mountain. I hadn't really thought of organising anything to do for the night because my mind was focused on exams and by the time I got round to thinking about it - all my friends were busy. Oh well - its nice to have a quiet relaxing evening sometimes.

Because I was tired and feeling lazy I whipped up the easiest thing I could find in the fridge. I found some chickpeas that I was going to use for a hummus that I never got round to making, some yummy organic asparagus that was never going to see itself in a proper meal if I didn't use it up soon (I was nibbling on one stalk at a time and it was slowly depleting), some fresh basil pesto that I made which was loosely based on this recipe, and some left over quinoa.

I just sautéed the asparagus and chickpeas in the chickpea water. The asparagus was pretty young and so it didn't need much at all. I threw that on top of the quinoa and put the pesto on top (once the photo was taken, the pesto was mixed in with the other stuff - but it didn't look quite as appetising then.

It was yummy and hit the spot perfectly (you can't really go wrong with asparagus though).
mmmm....

I have decided that it would be really hard to find the motivation to cook healthy meals if you were only cooking for yourself every night. I am glad that I hardly ever have to do it.

It is a wonderfully sunny day today and the weather forecast says that it is going to get to 28degrees (yay!!)

I am going to go for a walk in the sunshine.

Creamy Pumpkin Quinoa

This morning, I had every intention to make one of my favourite quinoa dishes - Susan V's farmer's market quinoa. I would highly recommend this dish to anyone - I have made it numerous times.

As the day progressed, however, I began to feel like pumpkin. I still wanted quinoa but I also wanted pumpkin. This dish just progressed from there. I used Susan's recipe as a guide but made a sauce of roasted pumpkin, red capsicum and soy milk. The result was really good - a lovely creamy quinoa dish. The flavours were quite mild - but it really hit the spot for me. I think it would be really easy to adjust the spices and have a few totally different tasting dishes. I will put a few ideas below the recipe.

Creamy Pumpkin Quinoa
800g pumpkin or butternut pumpkin (squash)
1 red capsicum - halved (dice one half and leave the other half for roasting)
1 onion - diced
2 medium zucchini - chopped
1/2 green capsicum - diced
2-3 cloves garlic - minced
1x400g tin diced tomatoes
1/2 cup soymilk
1/2 tsp oregano
1 tbsp basil or 1/4 cup fresh basil chopped
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar or agave
2 cups cooked quinoa

Directions

Preheat oven to 180degrees Celsius. Slice the pumpkin into wedges and place on a greased baking tray. Place a red capsicum half on the baking tray. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and take the capsicum off the tray and flip the pumpkin before putting it back in the oven for another 20-30 mins or until tender. Place the roasted capsicum in a paper bag or wrap in aliminum foil until it is cool - then remove the skin.
Remove the pumpkin from the oven and allow to cool. Once cool, remove the skin and chop into 2cm cubes.
In a large heavy bottomed saucepan or wok, saute the onion for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, zucchini, green capsicum, the uncooked half of the red capsicum, and half of the pumpkin cubes.
Cook for 10 minutes, stirring frequently but keeping the dish covered in between stirring. Add a little water if it is starting to stick.
While the vegetables are cooking, place the other half of the pumpkin cubes, the roasted capsicum, the spices and the soymilk in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.
Add the tomatoes and pumpkin mix to the vegetables and stir to combine. Add the quinoa and stir until mixed through. Serve immediately.

**I didn't serve mine immediately - so when I reheated the dish when Nat came home I added another 1/4cup soy milk to moisten it up again**

Some possible variations:

Possible Additions: green beans, eggplant, chickpeas, tofu cubes

Possible Spice combinations that I will be trying in the future (I will use them to taste- if you want to use them, have an idea about what quantities usually go into dishes):
Curry - cumin, corriander, turmeric.
Moroccan - tomato paste, cinnamon, bayleaves, raisins, turmeric, corriander, cumin.