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.

Steamed Kale Topped With Roasted Vegies

Decided to roast some root vegies which included fennel bulb, onion, parsnip, turnip, rutabaga, yellow pepper, fingerling potatoes. Roasted with a bit of oil, balsamic vinegar, ras el hanout spice, chili pepper ground, black pepper ground, ground ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon. HmmMmm... good!

Steam
1 Cup of Kale, ripped to bite size pieces

Top with
1 and 1/4 cup of the roasted vegies
10 grape tomatoes, halved.

Enjoy!


Rated a 4.71 on the Kale Scale.

Spiced Acorn Squash with Kale

Another squash recipe from my archives, to which I embellished a bit. The squash recipe is a keeper!

Bake the squash this way:
Cut the squash in half; bake acorn squash with some 100% orange juice in the cavity of each half; along with ground ginger, nutmeg and ras el hanout. No butter. No sugar. No oil.

When it has about 15 minutes left, I added couple tablespoons of buttermilk to each cavity. Mostly because I had some, and thought it might add something. It didn't hurt.

Once the squash is done, let it cool a bit. Then scoop out the squash meat and put in a bowl.

Add to the squash meet, some dukkah and some parmesan cheese.

Steam
1 cup kale, ripped to bite size pieces

Mix up
Half of the baked spiced, squash meet
Steamed kale pieces

Serve with a topping of
1.5 oz of greek non-fat plain yogurt



Rated a 4.7 on the Kale Scale.

Roasted Vegies Kale and Cabbage

With freshly made roasted vegies (potatoes, onion, pepper, balsamic vinegar - yum!), I had the basis for this meal.

Saute
1 tsp olive oil
1/4 cup red cabbage, cut up
1 serving of Roasted Vegies with Balsamic Vinegar

Steam on plate
1 cup of Kale, ripped to bite size pieces

Top with vegies and add dash of worcestershire sauce.

Rated a 4.7 on the Kale Scale.

Brussel Sprouts Pineapple on Steamed Kale

This was the perfect match for a little pork chop dinner.

Saute
1 tsp olive oil
3 bunch of green onions, white part, sliced up
3 brussel sprouts, chopped up
1/2 cup pineapple, chopped up

Steam
1 cup Kale, ripped to bite size pieces

Mix the kale, brussel sprouts and pineapple.

Serve with a bit of worcestershire sauce.

Rated a 4.67 on the Kale Scale.

Indian Potatoes with Steamed Kale

I've been organizing the pile of recipes that I've ripped out of magazines over the course of the last 10 years and finding some great nuggets, like Indian Potatoes. Yum!

This entry isn't about the recipe, but taking a share of the completed product, Indian Potatoes, and putting it on a bed of steamed kale, with a dollop of greek non-fat yogurt (plain).

Indian potatoes starts by heating brown and yellow mustard seed in hot oil til they pop a little. You add cumin seed, turmeric and then the potates that have been cut up. Cook for 20=25 minutes. Then add, coarsely ground coriander seeds, ground cumin, cayenne, and a handful of cilanto leaves. Cook a bit more.

Steam
1+ cup Kale, ripped to bite size pieces

Top with
1 serving of Indian potatoes

Serve with
Dollop of non-fat greek yogurt (included in nutrition count)

Rated a 4.69 on the Kale Scale.

A quick side dish to go with a hunk of halibut - a variation on the Kale with Parmesan from last week. Very good, fast food!

Steam
1+ cup kale, ripped to bite size pieces

Toss steamed kale with
7 grape size tomatoes, halved
8 green olives - castelvetrano, halved
3 Tbsp crumbled Feta cheese
1 tsp Dukkah (see previous blog entries too)

Rated a 4.68 on the Kale Scale.

Pineapple Kale dusted with Dukkah

A quick tasty side.

Steam
1 cup kale, ripped to bite size pieces
1/2 cup pineapple
1 Tbsp of chopped olives

Serve and top with
1-2 Tbps Dukkah


Rated a 4.67 on the Kale Scale.

Kale Steamed With Parmesan and Dukkah

A quick side dish to go with a hunk of salmon. Very good, fast food!

Steam
1 cup kale, ripped to bite size pieces

Toss steamed kale with
7 grape size tomatoes, halved
8 green olives - castelvetrano, halved
2 tsp capers
2 Tbsp shredded parmesan
1-2 tsp Dukkah (see previous blog entries too)

Serve with
1.2 tsp worcestershire sauce

Rated a 4.68 on the Kale Scale.

Beef Not with Kale

Beef Not is a dried soy product, and quite good, by Dixie Diners. The recipe below made two servings for me (not on the same day, of course).  This is something I found in my notes while cleaning up around here - one of my Kale meals from 2011 that never made it to the blog til now. Nonetheless, delicious and worthy of note.

Ingredients
1 Cup Beef Not
1 Cup Boullion (a cube with 1 cup water)
1.3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1.3 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp sherry
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground pepper
1/2 tsp Mrs Dash
1 can diced tomatoes
1/4 cup corn
1 red pepper, chopped up
2 tsp cornstarch mixed with 2 T cold water
2 T water
2 cups kale, chopped up and divided - 1 cup per serving

• Reconstitue the Beef Not following instructions on package.
• Saute, and simmer:
• Beef Not and all ingredients through red pepper for 10-15 minutes.
• Add, and continue simmer until sauce thickens a bit:
• Cornstarch mixed with water.
• Steam:
• 1 cup of kale
• Serve by topping the kale with 1 serving of beef not mixture.

Rated a 4.7 on the Kale Scale.

Hotsy Totsy Steamed Kale

Quick and easy this was. The hotsy totsy part is adding 1/8 to 1/4 tsp of chili powder to this concoction. But that paired nicely with the pineapple and Ras El Hanout.

Steam 1.5 minutes in microwave:

2 brussel sprouts, cut up
1/2 cup pineapple chunks, cut up
1 clementine, peeled and segmented, those cut in half
4 green onions, white part sliced thin
1 oz white wine
1/2 tsp Ras El Hanout
1/8 to 1/4 tsp chili powder
2 tsp dukkah (the Egyptian nut crumbles)

Add, and steam 2 minutes more in microwave:

1+ cup kale, purple and green, ripped to bite size pieces.

Serve and dust with a bit more dukkah.

Rated a 4.65 on Kale Scale

Tofu, Brussel Sprouts and Kale?

Yes! Tofu and kale go well together, and the brussel sprouts are nicely hidden, especially when using a delicious Korma sauce from Tasty Bites.

I call this one Korma Kale.

Saute:
1.5 tsp olive oil
1/3 cup onion, chopped
1/3 cup fennel bulb, chopped

After browning, remove onion and fennel, set aside.

Add and brown tofu:
1.5 tsp olive oil
12 oz or 1 box of Mori-Nu Firm Tofu, drained and cut into cubes
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp Ras El Hanout spice mix
1/2 tsp Mrs Dash

When tofu is browned, add:
The browned onion and fennel
5 brussel sprouts, quartered
1/2 cup corn kernels
1 package (7 oz) Good Korma Sauce by Tasty Bites
1 oz white wine

Stir together, cover and simmer for 8 minutes.

Check it, stir and simmer UNcovered 3-5 minutes to reduce liquid.

While the Korma cooks, steam a bed of 1 cup kale, and put on dinner plate.

Serve the Korma mixture on top of thebed of kale.

Rated a 4.79 on the Kale Scale.