Saturday 19 December 2015

Wendy Polisi's Italian Baked Quinoa Casserole - Adapted

Last week as I was perusing internet for quinoa recipes, I found one that included all of my favourite things - meat, cheese and tomatoes!

As the recipe is from American cook and author Wendy Polisi I did have to adapt it a wee bit to reflect Australian ingredients.

The original recipe can be found here.

Ingredients
beef mince
onion, cubed 
zucchini, cubed
red capsicum, cubed
mushrooms, sliced
tomatoes, cubed
cooked quinoa
mozarella
fresh garlic
cheddar cheese, grated
red wine vinegar, 
olive oil
oregano
salt
pepper
passata

topping
olive oil
red wine vinegar
dried basil
minced garlic
cherry tomatoes, halved
spinach



I don't really follow recommended amounts, I guestimate a lot with my ingredients, although I did use 500g of mince.


Method
* over a medium high heat, add olive oil, onions, zucchini, capsicum, mushrooms to a frypan (I used one with high sides) cook for around 5 minutes.
* add mince, and cook until brown. You may want to drain the mince before adding the next ingredients.
* add half - 2/3 bottle of passata, tomatoes, red wine vinegar, oregano, pepper and salt. I cooked all this together until the sauce was bubbling.

* in a separate bowl, combine quinoa with mozzarella and the rest of the passata.
* pour the mince mixture into a oven safe dish. Top with the quinoa mixture, and top it all with grated cheese.

I followed Wendy' directions with the Fresh Tomato Topping, although I replaced the fresh basil with dried and added spinach.




I'm hoping it will taste as good as it smells and looks, but of course, the real test is if my mum will eat it!
update: Mum didn't like the quinoa aspect, but I have had 3 separate servings of it! Yum!



> All vegetables and fruit (hello tomato!) were bought fresh this morning from my local Farm Direct Market