Giving up white rice is, in theory, a great idea. While filled with good intent and scientific content, is is utterly doomed to fail when executed. If you’ve grown up on a vegetarian rice based diet for 23 years, eliminating rice instantly zaps away your very spirit. For what its worth, I tried. I tried using bulghur wheat and I tried using brown rice. Not only does it take forever to cook, but it makes a terrible companion to  indian stews and curries. The entire experience typically ends with your going right back to white rice and consuming much more of it to make up for lost time.

Enter quinoa. A master of all disguise, I’ve found this fast cooking grain is a delicious and nutritious alternative not only to rice, but also to semolina and vermicelli vermicelli.  I’ve been adapting all my favourite home-food recipes with quinoa and have had results ranging from the the pleasant to even-better-than-the-original. There’s the old anecdote about Charlie Chaplin coming second in a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest. The same could be said of quinoa. If countries around the world could grant quinoa subsidies instead of corn subsidies, we’d be making a giant step towards fighting obesity. If someone needs a quinoa supporting petition signed, let me know!

Lemon Quinoa

You can’t go wrong with lemon. In fruits, salads, entrees, even body washes and sprays… you just can’t go wrong with them lemons. And so it is that south indian lemon rice is a common household dish. A dish that can be enjoyed any time of day, it is typically served with yogurt and indian pickles. This adaptation simply substitutes rice for quinoa. I add diced cucumber for added crunch and cool fragrance and eat it with a side of yogurt.

Ingredients
1) 2 cups quinoa
2) 1 tsp black mustard seeds
3) Curry leaves
4) 5 green chillies - chopped
5) 3 medium onions - chopped6) 1 cup steamed green peas.7) 1 tsp urad dal8) 1/2 Cucumber - diced.9) Juice of 3 lemons.10) 1/2 tsp Turmeric11) Salt12) Olive or canola oil.

Add washed quinoa to 4 cups water. Bring to a boil ( 1 min). Cover and simmer till done. (15 mins). Meanwhile heat oil in skillet. Add mustard. When it begins spluttering, add urad dal and curry leaves. Fry 1 minute. Add turmeric and onion. Fry till tender and raw smell of turmeric has subsided (5 min) . Add cooked quinoa, peas, salt and mix thoroughly ( 2 min). Remove off heat. When cooled, mix with lemon juice. Add freshly diced cucumber as garnish.

Veggie Frittata

Apparently : There’s nothing wrong with an egg. Nothing wrong with the yellow. Nothing wrong with the white. (Now they tell me!). It’s probably a good idea to go easy on the bells and whistles - the cheese, milk, butter, cream and their relatives. An egg itself is only about 90 cals.

While I spent time looking for some easy, healthy frittata recipes, a simple template emerged. Use eggs and yogurt as a base. Add pretty much any sauteed vegetable of choice. Bake for 30 mins. That’s it. They can be refrigerated a whole week in advance.I plan to have them with a slice of multigrain bread for a quick on-the-go breakfast.

Here’s my recipe….

Ingredients

1) Eggs  - 4

2) Yogurt - 3/4 cup

3) Mushrooms - 1/4 cup

4) Mixed peppers - 1/4 cup

5) Onions - 1

6) Garlic colves - 2

7) Green chillies - 4

8) Salt and pepper to taste

9) Chopped cilantro - 3 tbsp

Heat oven to 350 F. Saute onions and garlic until fragrant. Add peppers and mushrooms and saute till tender. Beat eggs and fold in yogurt, salt, pepper, cilantro and sauteed veggies.  Transfer mixture to a 8 1/4 ” pan and bake for 20 mins.