Hello and welcome to Freshly Served, the healthy
vegan cooking show.
Iím Heather and tonight Iím going to make
a creamy garlic sauce which Iím going to
put over quinoa.
You can put over any type of grain if you
like though.
So what Ií going to do first is get the quinoa
started.
Iíve got a cup of quinoa, Iím gonna put
in here.
Quinoa is a grain that does not need to be
rinse but you could if you like and like most
other grains Iím gonna cook it two to one
so Iím putting two cups of water in my one
cup of quinoa.
Iím gonna give it a pinch of sea salt, cover
it, bring it to a boil on the burner back
there and as soon as it comes to a boil Iím
gonna turn it down to minimum and let it simmer.
Quinoa is fairly fast cooking so it only takes
about only 20 minutes to half an hour and
if you have one of these guys flame tamer
put it underneath, it will really help the
cooking process.
A lot of people have problem in cooking quinoa
and really itís just about the right ratio
of water to quinoa, little bit of salt to
help the cooking process and then just letting
it get right down to low in order to cook
for the 20 minutes.
If you cook it to high, itís gonna get mushy,
if you leave it too long it will dry out and
if you donít cook it long enough it will
also be mushy so it is a little bit particular
but once you get use to it, no sweat.
So now that we got the quinoa going, letís
get started on our garlic sauce.
So the base for my sauce is going to be zucchini
and Iíve got some really beautiful yellow
zucchini that I found this week.
I normally would just use green zucchini but
because the yellow is there thatís what Iím
going to do.
So this is going into a blender which is necessary
for this recipe because otherwise the zucchini
will not be transform into liquid.
Food processor is ok, a hand blender probably
wonít be enough, you can try it but probably
wind up with a bit of chunkiness at the end.
Ok, now Iím gonna use some coconut milk,
this is not necessary but because I have some
left from my dill dressing that I made for
the cucumber salad the other day.
Iím gonna use this and just use as much as
you like.
You probably gonna wind up by the end of this
sauce using this whole half of can but Iím
gonna start with that from now.
And you just want enough liquid so that it
starts the zucchini blending so Iím gonna
add a little bit of water here as well just
to make sure itís really good and liquid.
Ok!
So Iíll start by putting that on the blender
just for a couple of seconds and thereís
where Iím at now, you can see that thatís
pretty nice and liquid, itís not totally
smooth yet.
What Iím gonna add next is some onion, this
is to bring more depth to the flavor.
You need to add some form of onion here, it
doesnít need to be a yellow onion but you
can put green onion or whatever you like but
you need some member of the onion family in
here otherwise itís just gonna taste not
sauce like and more like just pureeing vegetables
like baby food.
So give that another shot with the onions
to get that all nice and, nice and blended.
Alright!
Weíre gonna like creamier over here, next
thing Iím gonna add is the garlic since Iím
calling this a garlic sauce, this is kinda
the star of the show and Iím gonna go a little
nuts on the garlic.
Put in whatever you think you like.
And if you like a milder flavor you may want
to roast this before you put it in.
Iím putting it in raw.
Garlic of course has many nutritional benefits
among them antibacterial properties, antifungal
and yeast is a fungus, a type of fungus so
if you have any kind of yeast overgrowth garlic
is helpful for that.
Also helpful of course in warding off vampires
if thatís an issue for you and the list go
on and on but anyway garlic fantastic!
Also fantastic flavor so Iím putting the
smuchness of the garlic as well as the garlic
skin that I press in here.
Reason Iím pressing it even though Iím blending
it is because getting a mouthful of garlic
isnít the most fun even for me and I love
garlic so yes I am blending it but Iím gonna
smush it up first in my garlic press to make
sure that I donít get a big chunk of garlic.
Alright!
So give that another run on the blender.
And if you give that a whirl it should smell
like onion and garlic.
Lovely!
So next thing Iím gonna do is season this
guy and Iím going to add some salt, some
pepper, some nutmeg and some nutritional yeast.
Nutritional yeast is not absolutely necessary
but it does really help in the taste of creaminess
so if you have some I highly recommend throwing
some in there.
As you can see I never really measure too
precisely.
I just throw in what I think is appropriate
for the amount of stuff that I have.
Nutmeg really just adds some depth of flavor
and I donít know, it really just brings things
together so try to get some nutmeg in there.
Give it one last whirl in the blender and
weíre set to go as soon as the quinoa is
cook.
Always a good idea when your finish making
a sauce before you put it on your meal, give
it a taste to make sure it has the right flavor.
Oh!
That got some garlic kick to it.
Now I put more in here than I put in the recipe.
I think the recipe was probably more accurate,
so what Iím gonna do is just add the end
of this coconut milk to level things out.
The quinoa is cooked back here, Iím just
gonna put some in a plate.
Quinoa excellent source of protein, has a
good balance of the different amino acids
that you need for a healthy body and it taste
really delicious, it has a kind of unique
taste for a grain.
A little bit nutty especially if you roast
it beforehand.
And Iíve got my sauce here, Iím just gonna
pour some of this over the quinoa and I added
just a touch of balsamic vinegar to my sauce
when I was playing around with the flavours
when I had too much garlic in there and I
really like the flavor that balsamic brings
so Iím gonna add that to the recipe.
So there we go!
This is also definitely excellent if you have
some vegetables you want to throw on here,
on top of the quinoa and then pour the sauce
on top would be lovely.
So enjoy it however you have it.
Iím gonna have this along with a green salad
and enjoy your dinner.
