More of an idea than a recipe

Still keeping up with those New Year’s resolutions of cleaner eating and more exercise? Ha! I knew you couldn’t do it. (Kidding.)

Here’s an easy dish for packing in the nutrients and the flavour. It’s kind of a take on couscous, though instead of being made with that wee pasta, it features one of my favourite superfoods, quinoa.

To make it, all you do is cook about 1.5 cups of rinsed quinoa in double the amount of water (if I had stock on hand I would have used it instead for an extra flavour boost.) While it simmers away, drain and rinse a can up chickpeas, slice and dice some veggies (green onion, grape tomatoes, orange pepper and the like, plus loads of fresh parsley), and juice a fat lemon into some olive oil.

Once the quinoa is cooked, fluff it with a fork, let it cool, then toss everything together in a bowl and season the lot with sea salt and black pepper and chili flakes. Then let it sit in the fridge for a couple of hours before eating so the flavours marry.

This stuff has legs: Pop some into a Tupperware and you can call it lunch, side it will some broiled fish or chicken and you can call it dinner, or, stick a spoon into it and you can call it a snack.

Kickass Korean Tofu

After printing a series of blog posts about chocolate, shortbread, truffles and cheesy bread pudding, I had some requests to stop trying to kill you all, and instead, go back to my usual amenable ways of offering up healthy and tasty dishes for eating well.

So I guess you can add “good listener” to my list of “winning personality traits”. (And add “humility” to the list of “needs improvement.”)

Kickass Korean-style Tofu (Adapted from Gourmet)

(serves four)

Ingredients:

1 package soft or medium (but not silken and not firm) tofu

1 garlic clove, minced

1/4 cup green onion, finely chopped

1 tbsp roasted sesame seeds (tip: You can buy Japanese-style sesame seeds as they often come roasted)

2-3 tbsp Tamari or soy sauce

1/2 tbsp toasted sesame oil

1 tsp sriracha sauce

½ tsp sugar

Method:

1. Rinse block of tofu, then cover with cold water in a medium saucepan. Bring to a simmer, shut off heat, then cover and keep warm until eating.

2. While the tofu warms up, prepare sauce by combining ingredients above.

3. Just before serving, gently lift tofu from saucepan and drain on paper towels. Pat dry, then transfer to a plate and spoon some sauce overtop, serving remaining sauce on the side. Garnish with a bit more fresh green onion if you’re feeling fancy.

Be warned: This is addictive stuff. I almost ate the whole tofu block by myself in one sitting.