Marie Christine Fournier shares a recipe using the very nutritious quinoa.
[New City Magazine – March 2022, page 22]
Recently I had a few days visiting my brother and sister in the French Alps near Gap.
There were many special moments, one of those was a ride on my brother’s solar powered bike. It’s an ecological way of enjoying the magnificent mountain scenery.
Another time, returning from a walk on the snowy hills, my sister in law welcomed us with a heart-warming dish made with quinoa.
My brother loves this because it is gluten free and quinoa is a rich source of proteins, magnesium, calcium, vitamin B and iron. A cup of quinoa contains twice more protein and about 5g more fibre than a cup of white rice. Quinoa was first grown for food 7,000 years ago in the Andes in South America.
Once back home in the UK, I decided to share the love I had experienced there and adapted this recipe from BBC Good Food for my friends and they were so enthusiastic that I want to share it with New City readers.
It can be adapted with various ingredients in the quinoa mixture and it’s always delicious!
Ingredients:
▶ One large butternut squash
▶ Olive oil
▶ Pinch of oregano
▶ 200g quinoa, dry (or 300g ready cooked)
▶ 100g feta cheese (or any other hard cheese)
▶ 50g roasted pine nuts
▶ 1 carrot, grated
▶ 1 small bunch chives, snipped
▶ juice of half a lemon
▶ 1 red pepper, chopped
▶ 50g pitted black olives
▶ 2 spring onions, chopped
Method
Heat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Halve the butternut squash, scoop out the seeds and score the flesh with a sharp knife.
Arrange the two halves on a baking tray, drizzle with a little olive oil, season with freshly ground black pepper and sea salt, sprinkle with dried oregano and cook for 40 minutes. Then take out of the oven, add the chopped peppers to the tray alongside the squash and cook in the oven for a further 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, put the quinoa in a pan with 600 ml cold water, cover, bring to the boil, simmer for 20 minutes until all the water is absorbed.
Mix the rest of the ingredients with the cooked quinoa.
Take the tray out of the oven and carefully transfer the peppers to the stuffing mix. Stir together and spoon the filling onto the butternut squash.
Spoon the left over mixture into a small oven dish as an extra filling or for lunch the next day. Return both to the oven for 10 mins. Serve with a green salad. Enjoy!
Photos: © Marie Christine Fournier
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