Solar Pepper Quinoa with Steamed Kale

Hot weather continues - perfect for a solar cooked dinner!  A present some years ago, my solar cooker still does a fine job.

I put the quinoa, liquid and accompaniments into an orange pepper. I placed the pepper in a small pyrex dish to keep it stable. And this dish was placed in the black kettle that I use with the solar cooker. I also included in the cooker a salmon fillet.

Put the cooker in the sunshine at 1pm. Brought it in at 4:30 pm. 

Mix in a bowl

1/2 cup Quinoa
1/4 cup onion, chopped
1 Tbsp, ginger, raw and minced
1 clementine orange, peeled and sectioned
1 Cup water
1.5 Tbsp white wine (finishing off the little bottle)
1 Tbsp lime juice

Assemble

Cut the top and inside seeds from an orange pepper.
Place about 1/2 of the mixture in the prepared pepper.
Place in the solar cooker.
Cook for 2.5 hours.

Serve

Steam 1+ cup of kale for 2 minutes or less.
Place on plate
Put the stuffed pepper on the kale.
Add a dash of Worcestershire sauce.
Eat some kale with every bite!

Rated a 4.71 on the Kale Scale.

Warm Sweet Potato Quinoa Salad

I was on the hunt for a "mexican salad" for a potluck, and found this. Turns out this warm salad works perfectly paired with a bed of kale.

This recipe is cut in 1/2 from the original. I get about two 1. 3 cup servings - it took that much to provide the proper kale coverage for my liking.

Make quinoa
1/4 cup quinoa
3/4 cup water
Bring to a boil, then simmer til water is absorbed.

Cook sweet potato
1 big sweet potato (about 1/2 to 2/3 lbs. I used one weighing 300 grams).
Peel sweet potato, dice into 1/2 inch pieces. Cover with water, bring to boil; cook til tender about 15 minutes.  Drain well.

Toss the quinoa, and sweet potato with
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1.5 tbsp green onion, chopped fine
2 oz can of sliced olives
1 avocado, diced
1/4 cup mined fresh cilantro
6 cherry tomatoes, halved

Whisk together and mix into the vegetables
4 tbsp lime juice (the juice from 2 fresh limes)
2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp chipolte chili powder

Serve on a bed of 1 cup steamed kale.

Rated a 4.7 on the Kale Scale.