QUINOA-POLENTA CAKES WITH ROASTED RED PEPPER SAUCE AND WHITE BEAN PUREE
This healthful, satisfying dish (vegan if you use a soy cheese) was inspired by one of my favorite entrees at Le Pain Quotidien. If the quinoa is not prerinsed, be sure to rinse it thoroughly to remove the grain’s bitter taste. Roasting your own bell peppers will lend your sauce the best flavor; however, in a pinch, you can go with jarred.
— Dina Cheney
For the roasted red pepper sauce:
3 small garlic cloves
1 cup chopped roasted red peppers
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp. tomato paste
1 Tbsp. honey
1 tsp. fresh oregano leaves
1/2 tsp. coarse salt
3 grinds black pepper
For the white bean puree:
1 small garlic clove
One (15-oz.) can white beans, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
3 Tbsp. fresh-squeezed, strained lemon juice
1 Tbsp. white balsamic vinegar
3/4 tsp. coarse salt
1/2 tsp. chopped fresh rosemary sprigs
For the quinoa-polenta cakes
6 cups low-sodium vegetable broth, divided
2 tsp. coarse salt, divided
8 grinds black pepper
1 cup polenta (or corn grits)
1 cup prewashed quinoa
1 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1 cup grated carrots
1 cup grated zucchini, squeezed well to drain of excess water
1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
About 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, for cooking the cakes
To make the pepper sauce: In a mini food processor, pulse the garlic until minced, about 10 seconds. Add the peppers, olive oil, tomato paste, honey, oregano, salt and pepper, and puree until smooth, about 20 seconds.
To make the white bean puree: Clean out the mini food processor bowl, then add the garlic and pulse until minced, about 10 seconds. Add the beans, olive oil, lemon juice, vinegar, salt and rosemary, and puree until smooth, 30 to 40 seconds.
To make the cakes: Bring 4 cups of the broth, plus half of the salt and all of the pepper, to a boil in a deep, heavy medium saucepan over high heat. Once the broth has come to a boil, gradually stir in the polenta and reduce the heat to medium low. Cook, stirring vigorously and frequently, until the polenta is tender and the separate grains are no longer visible, about 23 minutes (expect a thin layer of the polenta to stick to the bottom of the pan). Transfer to a large bowl.
Meanwhile, bring the remaining 2 cups broth to a boil in a heavy medium saucepan over high heat. Once the broth is boiling, stir in the quinoa. Making sure the broth is still boiling, cover the pan, and reduce the heat to medium low.
Simmer the quinoa until it is cooked through (the white squiggles in the center of each grain will be visible, and each grain will be soft and larger in size) and all of the liquid has evaporated, about 15 minutes. Transfer the cooked quinoa, cheese, carrots, squeezed zucchini, flour, parsley and remaining 1 teaspoon salt to the large bowl with the cooked polenta. Stir very well.
Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a 10-inch, heavy, nonstick saute pan over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, form seven 2-inch oval patties of the quinoa-vegetable mixture, and add to the oil. Cook until the first side is golden brown and a bit crispy, about 3 minutes. Using a nonstick spatula, gently flip the cakes and cook until the second side is similarly golden brown and a bit crispy, about another 3 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel–lined baking sheet to degrease. Repeat with the remaining oil and patties, never letting the pan go dry. You should end up with about 19 cakes.
For each serving, spoon about 3 tablespoons of the white bean puree onto the center of a plate. Place 3 or 4 cakes on top. Drizzle about 3 tablespoons of the red pepper sauce over the top. Serves 4.
— From “Meatless All Day: Recipes for Inspired Vegetarian Meals,” by Dina Cheney (Taunton Press, $19.95).
SPELT SHORTCRUST PASTRY
This spelt shortcrust pastry really couldn’t be easier. It’s also delicious when you add different flavorings to it, like orange or lemon zest, finely chopped rosemary or thyme, or even lavender. This recipe makes enough dough to line one 10-inch tart pan or six 4-inch pans.
2 1/2 cups white spelt flour, sifted
Pinch of salt
6 Tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cubed
1/2 cup confectioners sugar (or pinch of stevia powder, optional)
2 large egg yolks
Put the flour, salt and cubed butter in a food processor and pulse until the mixture remembles fine bread crumbs. Add the sugar, if using, and egg yolks, and pulse again to combine. The mixture should immediately come together and leave the sides of the bowl. Remove from the bowl, shape into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Using a box grater, coarsely grate the pastry into a 10-inch tart pan (or six 4-inch pans), then press it evenly into the sides and base to form a tart shell. Prick the base of the tart with a fork and then chill again for 10 minutes. Cut a piece of parchment paper big enough to line the inside of the tart, scrunch it up into a tight ball, unscrunch it carefully, and lay it onto the pastry, then fill with baking beans. Place in the oven and bake blind for 12 minutes. Carefully remove the beans and paper and bake for another 5 minutes or until the pastry is very lightly golden.
— From “Love, Bake, Nourish,” by Amber Rose (Kyle Books, $24.95).
Find recipes for Quinoa-Polenta Cakes and Spelt ShortCrust Pastry only at MyDaytonDailyNews.com/life
When was the last time you went to the grocery store and didn’t see the words “quinoa” or “gluten-free”?
Ten years ago, this wasn’t the case, but it only takes a few years for a food product (or trend) to go from practically unknown to nearly ubiquitous.
So what products have gone from niche to normal in the past decade?
With input from Supermarket Guru Phil Lempert, the California-based analyst who is the undisputed king of all us grocery store geeks, here are a dozen grocery store bestsellers that weren’t even on our radar a decade ago.
Gluten-free
Shoppers are cutting gluten out of their diets for all kinds of reasons, not all of which are medically diagnosed. But no matter why people are avoiding gluten, the truth is that sales of gluten-free products have doubled in the past five years, and more manufacturers, including the stores themselves, are jumping on board.
Ancient grains
As we’ve started to reject plain old wheat, old-world grains are enjoying their turn in the spotlight. Those nutrient-dense grains, including quinoa, spelt, amaranth, farro, teff, wheat berries, kamut and millet, also have the cachet of being more “authentic,” Lempert points out.
Kale
The K word is one of the decade’s most notable trends, even though Lempert is one of the many eaters who finds it inedible in its raw, mature form.
Baby kale, however, isn’t just an offspring of a bigger leafy green trend, Lempert says. “I think we’re going to see other produce items that were not mainstream go mainstream but in their young form,” he says.
Keep your eyes out for even more young lettuces, fruits and vegetables, such as grape tomatoes and microgreens, that grace so many restaurant menus now.
Greek yogurt
Unlike probiotics, which were the driving force of yogurt’s most recent wave of popularity, the key to Greek yogurt’s incredible success in the past few years is another P: protein.
With the help of every low-carb diet ever invented, we’re on a real protein kick right now, Lempert says. Greek yogurt doesn’t just have twice the protein as regular yogurt, it’s thick and creamy in a way that commercial yogurts used to taste, at least in our nostalgia for the pre-artificially colored and overly sweetened ones.
Non-potato chips
Chips used to be made out of one of two things: Potatoes and corn. But walk down the chip aisle today, and you’ll find chips made from beans (a breakthrough product from Austin company Beanitos) and other legumes, such as lentils, sprouted grains and even popcorn and egg whites. We’re also seeing non-chip snacks, like pretzels and Cheez-Its, morphed into chip form.
There’s even a whole segment of non-potato vegetable chips, some of which are freeze-dried whole vegetables while others are ingredients, like kale, processed and seasoned to taste like something one might call a chip.
Craft beer
Ten years ago, the beer aisle was dominated by the brewers with enough money to buy Super Bowl ads, but now you can walk into a store and find beer from local craft brewers that don’t even have a marketing department. Americans’ taste for fancy beer has grown faster than the big dogs can keep up, which has been a boon for the smaller breweries that can make once lesser-known beers, like a coffee porter or a double IPA, without a market study to justify the production.
Superfoods
With our new “food is medicine” mantra, Americans want superhero foods that can keep them healthy or cure what ails them. Although there’s no official definition or regulation of the term superfood, you’ve probably heard about them sometime in the past 10 years and then saw those ingredients, including acai, goji berries, mangosteen, chia, hemp and flax seeds, or coconut oil, creep into other products on shelves, from granola and yogurt to juice and crackers.
Blueberries, eggs and apples could be considered superfoods, but what we’re really talking about here are exotic ingredients marketed for their health benefits.
Culinary-forward helper products
Hamburger Helper paved the way for a quickly growing segment of the grocery industry: prepared sauces, pre-measured spices, pre-cut vegetables and marinated meats.
Just as the first cake mix manufacturers found out, even though Americans want shortcuts in the kitchen, they still want to feel like they are cooking. (For cake mixes, it was the crack of an egg that made cooks feel like they were still cooking and not just opening a box.)
Hundreds of new products have come out to help get dinner on the table but still take advantage of consumers’ desire to try new recipes and feel like they are in charge of what’s going on the dinner table.
Organics
Thanks to dozens of documentaries, books and TV reports about the environmental effects of the modern agriculture industry, sales of organics have tripled in the past decade, but Lempert predicts that we’re in a bubble that is bound to burst.
Even with more organic products on the market, Lempert says that there are signs that sales are starting to plateau, and with prices on organic meat and dairy expected to rise because of the ongoing drought in California, consumers will grow weary of the added expense.
High-caffeine drinks
Kombucha, the tart, cultured tea that’s teeming with good-for-you bacteria, has had a great 10 years, but it’ll never come close to eclipsing the expanding caffeinated drink category. “We are such an overcaffeinated country,” Lempert says, we’ll continue to see unnaturally caffeinated drinks, ranging from high-powered teas to the countless energy drinks on the market.
Mid-calorie sodas and snacks
Gone is the heyday for fat-free and zero-calorie. You’ll still find those products, of course, but customers are figuring out, sometimes the hard way, that fat-free doesn’t mean “won’t make you fat,” because those products are often bulked up with sugar to compensate for flavor.
Innovations in food processing have given us more low-calorie sweetening options, such as the plant-based stevia, which is showing up in products across the supermarket.
Non-dairy milks
Dairy milk consumption has been falling since the 1970s, and soy and almond milk used to be the only options for people who couldn’t (or didn’t want to) drink regular milk. But now shoppers have dozens of non-dairy choices, including milks made from seeds, nuts and even those ancient grains.
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