Eat Your Veggies: Roasted Vegetables and Quinoa Salad

I would like to thank Christina for another great recipe! I tried her Roasted Vegetable and Quinoa Salad recipe the other day. I loved it, and my husband - the carnivore - really liked it as well. (I packed it in his lunch and he called me to tell me how much he enjoyed it!) This is a great way to get a lot of veggies in a really healthy dish, and the feta cheese adds a nice salty bite.

With it's balanced set of essential amino acids, quinoa (pronounced "keen-wah") contains more protein than any other grain. It also has additional nutritional value with fiber, vitamins, and minerals. You could substitute with couscous if you can't find quinoa, but if you haven't tried quinoa before, I encourage you to do so!

Roasted Vegetables and Quinoa Salad
Ingredients
1 red bell pepper
3 cups vegetable stock
1 ½ cups uncooked quinoa
¼ cup balsamic blend seasoned rice vinegar (Nakano)
2 tsp olive oil
¼ tsp black pepper
2 cups chopped carrot
Cooking spray
1 3/4 cups chopped yellow squash
3 ½ cups zucchini chopped
1 cup (4 oz) crumbled reduced fat feta cheese
1 garlic clove

Directions
Preheat broiler.
Cut bell pepper in half lengthwise; discard seeds and membranes. Place pepper halves, skin sides up, on a foil-lined baking sheet; flatten with hand. Broil 15 minutes or until blackened. Place in a sip-top bag; seal. Let stand 15 minutes. Peel and cut bell pepper into strips.

Reduce over temperature to 500ºF.

Bring 3 cups of vegetable stock to a boil in a medium saucepan and stir in quinoa. Cover, reduce heat and cook for 15 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Remove pan from heat and set aside.

Combine vinegar, oil and black pepper in medium bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add carrot to vinegar mixture; toss to coat. Drain carrot through a fine sieve over a bowl, reserving carrot and vinegar mixture. Place carrot on baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Bake at 500º for 10 minutes. Add zucchini and yellow squash to reserved vinegar mixture in bowl; toss well to coat. Drain zucchini mixture through a fine sieve over a bowl, reserving zucchini and vinegar mixture. Add zucchini mixture to carrot on baking sheet in a single layer. Bake an additional 20 minutes or until vegetables are browned. Remove from oven and cool completely.

Combine quinoa, roasted vegetables, reserved vinegar mixture, cheese and garlic in a large bowl; stir well to combine. Cover and chill. Yield 8 servings (1 cup servings).

In Season - Roasted Corn, Pepper, and Tomato Chowder

There are few foods I love more than farm fresh tomatoes in August or September. They are so juicy with an intense flavor. Their color is a deep beautiful red, and they slice with ease. I am perfectly content bringing a bag home from the market, slicing them, and eating them with a little olive oil and sea salt, and nothing more! Despite my pleasure in this simple late-summer treasure, I am also willing to try almost any recipe that includes tomatoes.

My mother recently referred me to a Cooking Light recipe for Roasted Corn, Pepper, and Tomato Chowder. It capitalizes on the season's fresh ingredients, and includes two of my favorites (the other is corn). This recipe is so good that I made it one night, it was gone in two days, and I found myself making another batch that night! And again three nights later! My current dilemma is that all of the fresh tomatoes I have been buying have been going into this soup when I need to be trying some other recipes!

I really have no alterations to this recipe, other than the fact that I roasted the vegetables instead of grilling them (my “grill man” wasn’t home at the time, and it ended up working out great). The recipe recommends serving with bleu cheese and chives as a garnish. I’ve also tried goat cheese, croutons, and it is perfect accompanied by a grilled cheese and light green salad.

Roasted Corn, Pepper, and Tomato Chowder
Ingredients
* 3 red bell peppers, halved and seeded
* 3 ears shucked corn
* 1 1/2 pounds tomatoes, halved, seeded, and peeled (about 4)
* 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
* 4 cups chopped onion (about 2 medium)
* 3 (14-ounce) cans fat-free, less-sodium vegetable broth
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
* 1/4 cup (1 ounce) crumbled blue cheese
* 2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives

Preparation
1. Prepare grill to medium-high heat.
2. Arrange bell peppers, skin side down, and corn in a single layer on a grill rack; grill 5 minutes, turning corn occasionally. Add tomatoes; grill an additional 5 minutes or until vegetables are slightly charred. Remove from heat; cool 10 minutes. Coarsely chop tomatoes and bell peppers; place in a medium bowl. Cut kernels from ears of corn; add to tomato mixture.
3. Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion; cook 7 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally. Stir in tomato mixture; cook 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Increase heat to high, and stir in broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 30 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Cool 20 minutes.
4. Place one-third of tomato mixture in a blender; process until smooth. Place pureed mixture in a large bowl. Repeat procedure twice with remaining tomato mixture. Wipe pan clean with paper towels. Press tomato mixture through a sieve into pan; discard solids. Place pan over medium heat; cook until thoroughly heated. Stir in salt and black pepper. Ladle about 1 1/2 cups soup into each of 6 bowls; top each serving with 2 teaspoons cheese and 1 teaspoon chives.