Asian-Inspired Mandarin Quinoa Salad

I don’t know if it’s the call of summertime (and bikinis) or just the longer hours of daylight available in a day, but over the past month I’ve started fitting a lot more exercise into my schedule.  I’d only just started getting into fitness in January but started off pretty slowly so I didn’t overdo anything (I have a bad knee that likes to act up a lot), but when new fitness classes became available in May, my sister and I started trying out a bunch and so far we've kept it up!

I’ve discovered a love for Zumba (my favourite of all classes; I am hopeless when it comes to the more salsa-esque moves but it is still so fun!) and yoga, along with a love/hate relationship with bootcamp style classes, which are so hard but also so effective!  And tonight I’m going to try my first AquaZumba class (basically Zumba in the water), which should be interesting!

All this exercise not only has me craving healthy food more, but also needing quick dinners that can be waiting for me in the fridge when I get home later than normal and am starving! I especially love quinoa salads for this purpose because they keep well in the fridge, are full of protein, and can be customized to endless flavour combinations!

I’ve been wanting to try an Asian flavoured quinoa for a while, and when I started thinking of ingredients to include in one, I remembered this mandarin chicken salad I made a while ago and loved.  So I decided to incorporate many of those same ingredients into a quinoa salad – I kept the red pepper, carrot, edamame, and mandarin oranges, added green onion, almonds, and orange juice in the dressing, and left out the chicken because there was already plenty of protein in this salad from the quinoa, edamame, and almonds (though you could certainly add chicken if you like!).

This was so fresh and every bite was full of flavour, with a wide range of textures from the crunchy red peppers to juicy oranges and buttery soft edamame.  Regardless of whether I can keep up my fitness motivation or not, I know I’ll still be making this quinoa many more times this summer!

Asian-Inspired Mandarin Quinoa Salad

Makes 2-3 main dish servings or around 6 side dish servings

Ingredients:

For the Quinoa:

1 cup uncooked quinoa (I used golden & black mix)

1 cup vegetable broth, optional

1 cup shelled frozen edamame

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 to 1.5 mandarin oranges, peeled and chopped

2 large carrots, grated

2 green onions, chopped

1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted if desired (I was too lazy but almonds are usually better toasted!)

For the Dressing:

2 tablespoons fresh mandarin orange juice (squeezed from about half a mandarin)

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

2 tablespoons sesame oil

1/2 teaspoon chili garlic sauce (optional for a bit of spice)

1-1/2 teaspoons honey (use agave or brown sugar to make this dish vegan)

2 teaspoons soy sauce

1 garlic clove, minced

Dash each of salt and pepper

Directions:

Bring 1 cup water and 1 cup vegetable broth to a boil in a medium saucepan.  Add quinoa, cover, and reduce heat to simmer for 15 minutes.  Remove from heat and let sit, covered, for 5 minutes, then remove lid and fluff with a fork.  Let quinoa cool.  (Note that the vegetable broth is optional to add a little extra flavour; if you choose not to use it then use 2 cups water total instead)

Meanwhile, cook edamame according to package directions - I added my edamame beans to 1 cup of boiling water, let them simmer for 3-4 minutes, then drained and rinsed them.  Also whisk together all ingredients for the dressing in a small bowl and set aside.

Once quinoa has cooled to room temperature, combine quinoa, edamame, red pepper, oranges, carrots, green onions, and almonds in a large bowl.  Pour dressing overtop and mix to combine.  Serve at room temperature or chilled.

Asian-Style Chicken Noodle Soup

Even though it's now officially Spring and it seems like everyone's already talking about spring produce like asparagus and peas and all those bright and crunchy fresh veggies, it's hard to get into the spring mindset when this is your view out the window:

With the seemingly never-ending snow and cold, I'm naturally still craving warm and cozy comfort food.  And with a sore throat signalling the start of another cold yesterday, I quickly developed a particular craving for the ultimate comfort food, chicken noodle soup.

But because I couldn't show you guys just any old chicken noodle soup, this one has a twist!

This soup takes on an Asian flavour with the addition of ingredients like mushrooms, bok choy, cilantro, fish sauce, lemongrass, and lime juice, and the use of soba noodles instead of more traditional egg noodles or other pasta.  This gives the soup such a great depth of flavour that still has the comfort factor and familiar taste of chicken noodle soup but is a little more exciting!

Even better, the addition of ingredients like ginger, garlic, and spicy chiles are great for fighting off a cold (at least I hope that's what I'm telling myself!)

If you're lucky enough to live somewhere that actually felt like spring on the first day of spring, send some warm and sunny thoughts up north!  In the meantime, I can't really complain when I have a giant pot of this delicious soup to keep me warm :)

Asian Chicken Soba Noodle Soup

Loosely adapted from LCBO’s Food & Drink

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon canola oil

2-inch piece of ginger, peeled and minced

3 cloves garlic, minced

8 oz sliced mini bella or crimini mushrooms

1 large carrot, julienned (I used a couple handfuls of pre-sliced waffle cut carrots instead)

1 yellow onion, chopped

2 liters (8.5 cups) chicken broth

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 tablespoon frozen chopped lemongrass (or 2 stalks lemongrass)

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, fat trimmed off

2 tablespoons fish sauce

1/2 teaspoon chili garlic sauce (or more if you want it to be really spicy!)

8 oz soba noodles*

4-5 heads baby bok choy, ends trimmed and sliced lengthwise

Juice of half a lime

2-3 green onions, thinly sliced

Salt and pepper

Cilantro and additional lime wedges for serving, if desired

Directions:

Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat.  Add ginger, garlic, mushrooms, carrot, and onions.  Cook for 5-7 minutes until softened, stirring often.  Add chicken broth, red pepper flakes, lemongrass, and chicken breasts.  If using a lemongrass stalk, remove the outer stalks, cut into chunks, smash, and wrap in cheesecloth – you will need to remove it before serving.  Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to a simmer.  Let simmer for about 20 minutes, until chicken is cooked through.

Remove chicken breasts and set aside.  Add fish sauce and chili garlic sauce to broth and stir.  Add soba noodles and cook in the simmering broth for 5 minutes.  Meanwhile, shred chicken.

Add bok choy and shredded chicken to the pot and let cook for another 2-3 minutes, until bok choy is slightly wilted.  Remove from heat.  Stir in lime juice and green onions, and season with salt and pepper to taste.  Use a sharp knife or clean kitchen shears to cut some of the soba noodles in half, otherwise they will be difficult to divide into bowls.

Serve with additional lime wedges (I highly recommend this) and cilantro, if desired.

*Note: I used soba noodles because I have a ton of them to use up right now (and I like them!) but you could substitute rice noodles if you like.  Just cook them separately according to the package directions (usually soaking in hot water), toss with a bit of sesame oil to keep them from sticking, then add to the soup at the end.

Mandarin Chicken Salad

I’ve been fortunate enough to travel to Asia a few times now, and while I love experiencing the incredible and diverse food Asia has to offer, one of the things I always find myself missing is a fresh, crisp salad. A lot of vegetables over there are cooked, and sometimes you can’t trust the fresh ones because they may have been washed in tap water. Towards the end of my trips, I actually start dreaming about raw vegetables and would give up all the amazing food there just to have one bowl of refreshing salad!

So the first thing I did when I got home from my most recent trip was to make myself a giant bowl of salad! I wanted to make something with Asian ingredients though, and realized it was the perfect time to try a salad recipe I’d had bookmarked for a year but kept forgetting to make: this mandarin chicken salad from Munchin with Munchkin. While it looked like a lot of ingredients to buy, I actually had all the ingredients for the dressing already, and I didn't mind buying the vegetables because I knew I'd eat whatever was leftover as a snack, so it was money well spent!

I changed quite a few little things with the recipe in order to suit my tastes (and based on what ingredients I had on hand), so be sure to check out the original recipe too so that you can also adjust the ingredients to your tastes! You should also check out the rest of Kris’ amazing blog while you’re there – it was just voted the Best Recipe Blog in The Kitchn’s Homies awards!
This salad was so fresh and flavorful and exactly what I was craving after my trip. I loved how the sweet mandarins were balanced by all the crunchy vegetables, and the sweet and sour vinaigrette gave it the Asian flavour I was still desiring. I have a feeling I’ll be craving this salad a lot more now that I know how much I love it!

Mandarin Chicken Salad

Adapted from Munchin with Munchkin

Serves 2

Ingredients:

For the Dressing:

1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1/4 teaspoon chili garlic sauce (optional for a bit of spice)
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 teaspoon sweet Thai chili sauce 
Dash of salt

For the Salad:

1 boneless, skinless chicken breast, cooked and shredded into small pieces (I cooked mine in sesame oil)
2 cups lettuce
1/2 red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
1 medium carrot, cut into matchsticks
1/4 cup snow peas
1/4 cup shelled edamame, cooked as per package directions
2-3 mandarins, segmented
2 tablespoons ground peanuts (ground in a food processor)
2 tablespoons sesame seeds

Directions:

In a small bowl, whisk together all ingredients for the dressing. Taste and adjust any amounts to your liking. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine salad ingredients, toss with dressing, and divide salad between two plates/bowls, with the peanuts and sesame seeds sprinkled on top.

Notes:

- Next time I might eliminate the carrots and snow peas and increase the mandarins. Choose ingredients and amounts to your own taste!
- Optional additional toppings may include green onions, cilantro, and chow mein noodles

Thai Turkey & Carrot Meatballs

Since I returned home from my brief trip to Thailand, I've been really eager to try my hand at cooking Thai dishes at home. I wish I could say that this recipe was a brilliant and creative attempt at recreating Thai flavours in my own dish, but I actually made this dish a couple of months before I even went there, and it wasn't my idea but was inspired by an intriguing recipe I found from Foodland Ontario.

Nevertheless, these little turkey and carrot meatballs do pack a ton of Thai ingredients like ginger, lime, cilantro, fish sauce, and chili hot sauce, and they make for a juicy and tasty little bite that's bursting with flavour! They obviously aren't a dish you'd expect to find in Thailand, but I thought they were a really nice way of incorporating some Thai flavours into more of a familiar Western-style dish.

I also love that these are fairly healthy because they're baked instead of fried, and they're made with lean ground turkey, lots of carrots, and other good-for-you ingredients like ginger, garlic, and cilantro. I can imagine a vegetarian version made with something like lentils and cashews, though I haven't tried that yet - maybe that will be my next project!

These are really easy to make and the recipe makes a ton of meatballs, so they can serve a big group as a party appetizer, or can be frozen to be eaten later in any recipe you like! I ate some of mine on their own with the peanut dipping sauce suggested in the original recipe. I wasn't a fan of the sauce because it had a coconut milk base that was too sweet for me, but with a regular peanut sauce or Thai chili sauce, these would be great!

I then discovered that throwing the meatballs in a sub bun with carrot slaw, cilantro, and lots of peanut sauce made for one of the best sandwiches I've ever had. It was really messy but as long as I ate it in private so no one would see my sauce covered face and hands, it was amazing! I think the meatballs would also be great in a peanut noodle dish or a coconut curry soup - be creative and let me know what works!

I hope to start experimenting with more authentic Thai dishes soon, and hopefully I'll end up with a few successful recipes to share with you guys!


Thai Carrot & Turkey Meatballs

Adapted from Foodland Ontario, as seen on 50Plus

Makes about 50 small meatballs

Ingredients:

3 cups grated carrot (about 2-3 large carrots, weighing about 1 pound total)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large egg
1/2 cup minced cilantro
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1/4 teaspoon lime zest
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon chili-garlic sauce (or more for more spice)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 pound lean ground turkey
1/2 cup breadcrumbs

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Add all ingredients except for the last two (breadcrumbs and turkey) to a large bowl and mix well. Add breadcrumbs and ground turkey and mix in until everything is thoroughly combined.

Roll about 1 tablespoon of the turkey mixture into a ball and place on the parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Repeat with the rest of the mixture, until you have about 50 meatballs. Place in preheated oven and bake 12-16 minutes, rotating pans halfway through, until meatballs are firm and no longer pink inside.

Serve warm on skewers with a peanut sauce dip, sweet chili sauce, or other dipping sauce.

To make Meatball Subs:

I used a white baguette for the bun, covered the bottom half in a storebought broccoli-carrot slaw that I'd coated in a good amount of (storebought) peanut sauce, placed as many turkey meatballs as I could fit on top of that, sprinkled some fresh cilantro on top, then added another drizzle of peanut sauce.

Garlic Chicken on Bok Choy Rice Cakes

I don’t normally post two days in a row but these were so good that I couldn’t wait to share them, especially because I want to make sure you have time to prepare them for your New Year’s Eve party – they’d be perfect! Little pieces of chicken are coated in a sweet, garlicky sauce and placed atop bites of cool sticky rice mixed with bok choy and green onions. It’s kind of like sushi, but easier!

These might look difficult to make, especially if you’ve already scrolled down to take a look at the recipe, but trust me that they’re not! I have absolutely no experience with sushi or even sticky rice, but I had no problem making these on my own. It also probably looks like there are a lot of ingredients to buy, but most of the ingredients were things I already had in my fridge or cupboard so I didn’t have to buy much. The one thing I had trouble finding was the black sesame seeds – my dad and I searched through Loblaws and Bulk Barn with no luck, then went to an Asian grocery store where after searching every aisle, we finally found them in the last place we checked. I don’t think they’re that essential for taste though, so if you can’t find them, just use regular sesame seeds or leave them out. Or you can try to see how kind a sushi bar employee is by asking them to lend you a couple tablespoons of black sesame seeds – I was too shy to ask :)

I served these to my parents as a pre-dinner appetizer the last two nights in a row, and both times they couldn’t stop raving about them. They’re not only tasty but also look so pretty and elegant, which is why they’d be the perfect thing to impress your guests on New Year’s Eve or at any other party. The rice cakes can be made up to two days in advance, then you can cut up the chicken and make the sauce early in the day, so all you have to do when you’re ready to serve them is cook the chicken and place it on the rice cakes. Even if you don’t have a party to serve these at, I hope you’ll still try them for yourself!

I wish you all a safe and happy New Year’s Eve, and hope you come back early in the New Year for my round-up of my favourite dishes of 2011!

Garlic Chicken on Bok Choy Rice Cakes

Adapted from LCBO’s Food & Drink magazine, Holiday 2011

Makes about 25 portions

Ingredients:

For the Rice Cakes:

2 cups (uncooked) short or medium-grain sticky rice (Japanese-style rice used for making sushi)
1 cup finely diced bok choy stalks and greens (from about 2 large stalks)
2 green onions, finely chopped
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons toasted black sesame seeds

For the Chicken:

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 250g or 8oz total)
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 teaspoons sherry
1 teaspoon light soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon Asian chili sauce
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon sesame oil

2-3 green onions, finely shredded, for garnish

Directions:

For the Rice Cakes:

Cook sticky rice according to package directions. Once cooked and while still hot, stir bok choy, green onions, rice vinegar, sugar, salt, and sesame oil into the pot and stir to mix evenly with the rice. Scrape mixture into a greased 9x13 baking pan. Use the back of a large spoon to spread the rice in an even layer covering the pan. Sprinkle evenly with sesame seeds. Let cool to room temperature, then refrigerate 2 hours or until firm.

Use a 1.5-inch round cookie cutter to cut the rice into about 25 cakes (or as many as you can get). I didn’t have a round cutter so I simply cut out circles freehand using a knife. If you have troubles cutting round circles, use a small shotglass as a guide to cut around. Discard excess rice and return the cakes, covered, to the refrigerator until ready to use. Finished cakes can be made up to 2 days in advance.

For the Chicken:

Slice chicken breast across the width into thin (1/4” thick) slices, then cut each slice into 1 inch pieces.

In a small bowl, whisk together the hoisin sauce, brown sugar, sherry, soy sauce, chili sauce, and garlic.

Heat vegetable oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook until lightly browned, about 3-5 minutes. Remove to a small plate. Pour sauce mixture into pan, bring to a boil and reduce by half, or until sauce is thick and glossy. Return chicken to the pan with the sauce and simmer for about 30 seconds until chicken is cooked through, stirring to coat with the sauce. Remove from heat and stir in sesame oil.

To Assemble:

Use tongs to place warm chicken on top of individual rice cakes. Top each with a small garnish of shredded green onion.