The Quintessential Quinoa Cookbook

The Quintessential Quinoa Cookbook
Written by Wendy Polisi
Published at Skyhorse Publishing

About the book

With over 200 pages of quinoa-inspired cuisine, The Quintessential Quinoa Cookbook is unlike any other quinoa cookbook. Inside you’ll find Wendy’s exclusive, hand-crafted recipes, photographs of every recipe, nutritional information for every recipe, and alternative ingredients and preparation methods. Included are vegan, gluten-free, sugar-free, fast & easy, eating clean, quinoa recipes for kids, and even desserts! Let’s take a quick peek at the recipes included: Strawberry Spinach Quinoa Salad, Black Bean and Quinoa Tostadas, Quinoa Burgers, Almond Fudge Quinoa Brownies, Sun-Dried Tomato and Goat Cheese Pizza, and much more!

Who is Wendy Polisi?

Wendy Polisi’s goal is to create whole nutritious foods that are also exceptionally delicious. She came across quinoa by accident—as a busy mom, she felt run-down and out of shape, but after trying out a quinoa recipe one day she was hooked—and she’s never looked back. She lives in Arizona with her family.

My Thoughts

I never cooked with quinoa before.  I’ve heard of it.  I was curious about it.   But up until today I didn’t have the courage to try it out.    So when I received this book to review, I had the obligation to go purchase some quinoa because honestly how can someone review a cookbook without trying at least one recipe.

So I went to Bulk Barn and purchased a small quantities of quinoa.    Now what will I do with it?    I needed to find a recipe…  This book contains recipes for every possible meal you want to serve: breakfast, appetizers, soups, salads, entrees, sides, pasta, polenta, pizza, breads, muffins, desserts.   There is even a section for cooking with kids.    Honestly, I never seen such a complete book on a specific ingredients before!

I looked at each recipe in the book before deciding to go ahead and try the muffins.

All I needed to do was to transform the quinoa into flour and thanks to my WonderMill this was done in seconds!  Look at this amazing quinoa flour freshly made at home. 

Before I give you the recipe, I must admit that we changed it a bit.  You see the recipe is supposed to be blueberry muffins but after going to the Farm Boy my husband and I we quickly realized that the price of blueberries were quite high so we purchased mangoes instead.   Will the switch work?   The only way I could know is by doing the recipe.   So here’s the recipe.

BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup of softened butter

1 egg

1/2 cup low-fat milk

3/4 cup unbleached white flour (okay I will admit that I only had regular flour)

3/4 cup of quinoa flour (freshly made!)

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 cups blueberries, dredged in 3 tbsp quinoa flour (okay here’s the switch here… I had mangoes, remember?)

Preheat the oven at 385 degrees. 

Beat together the sugar and the butter.

In a separate bowl, beat egg and then add the milk.

Sift together the dry ingredients and add alternating milk and egg mixture with sugar mixture.   (Since my sugar mixture was already in the bow of my KitchenAid mixer, I decided to alternate between the liquid and the dry ingredients instead.)

Don’t forget to flour the fruits…

With a spoon, fold in the floured fruits.

Pour into greased muffin tins and bake for 25 to 30 minutes.

The results are beautiful yummy muffins that the whole family will enjoy tomorrow morning. 

This marvelous muffin was eaten by my husband and I and we both thought it was delicious.   Mind you we have never had cooked mango before so not only we tried out quinoa but we also experimented with the mangoes!   

This recipe was easy to do and doesn’t take much time.    I suspect that you could replace the blueberries with any fruits you would prefer – even chocolate chips!

I still have some quinoa flour so now I have to figure out what else we want to try.   I am more willing now to try other recipes from this cookbook and discover the wide range of possibilities that quinoa offers.

If you want to try something new in your meal preparation, I suggest that you check out The Quintessential Quinoa Cookbook to expand your taste buds and your repertoire of recipes.

The Quintessential Quinoa Cookbook is available at your favorite bookstore, even amazon.ca.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of the book for review purposes from Thomas Allen. I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way. All opinions expressed here are only my own.

Popcorn Treats

Popcorn Treats – delicious recipes for savoury snacks & sweet treats
By Hannah Miles
Published at Ryland Peters & Small

About the book

Too long hidden away in dark cinemas, popcorn is a treat that's ready to take a leading role! And on hand to give this humble kernel a star makeover is the wonderfully creative Hannah Miles, who shows how popcorn can be dressed up in a riotous variety of fabulous flavours!

Sweet nibbles range from classic Butter Toffee to indulgent Raspberry and White Chocolate. For those who prefer Savoury flavours, the Pumpkin Seed, Chilli and Thai Spiced varieties are all great healthy snacking options. But it is the Gourmet flavours that are not to be missed: try Margarita, Black Truffle or Salted Caramel popcorn for a truly decadent treat. Or simply combine this favourite snack into other treats such as Cookies, Cupcakes or Lollipops for the best of both worlds. The possibilities are endless and the preparation is simple, so join in the fun and start popping!

Who is Hannah Miles?

Hannah Miles was a high-flying legal eagle working for a top City lay firm when a friend emailed her with details of a “dream cottage” in the Bedfordshire countryside.  Instantly besotted with the thatched stone cottage, Hannah and her husband ditched London life and headed for their rural idyll.  In 2007, Hannah competed in BBC television’s hugely popular MasterChef programme, in which she won the hearts of the nation and the adulation of the judges: John Torodo said of her: “I think Hannah is one of the most naturally gifted cooks I have seen in a long time.”  One of the three MasterChef finalists, Hannah’s food career has since taken off, though she still also practices law.  She has a monthly column in Country Kitchen and Country & Town House magazines, writes for delicious magazine and continues to make both television and MasterChef Live (Good Food Show) appearances.  She is the author of Milkshake Bar, Mini Cakes, Sundays & Splits, The Gluten-free Baker and Whoopie Pies, all published at Ryland Peters & Small.

Our Thoughts

When I saw this title in the catalogue of Ryland Peters & Small, I immediately thought that my husband and kids would love it.   Why?   Well, popcorn has a place of honor in our house for snacks.    I was looking forward to discover the fun recipes included in this little book.     In this out-of-the-ordinary cookbook (after all it is all dedicated to popcorn!), you will find sweet popcorn recipes which will calm your sweet tooth, savoury popcorn recipes which will open up a whole new world of flavors, popcorn treats recipes which will incorporate popcorn in desserts as well as gourmet popcorn recipes which will expand your taste buds in your mouth.

There are many recipes that caught our eye while we flipped through it.  The first reaction of my husband was: “Cool! Something different…”   Once everyone had gone through the book to check out the recipes, we agreed to try out the Banana Maple Popcorn.

Banana Maple Popcorn

This popcorn ingredients are essentially: banana chips, butter, maple syrup and popcorn kernels.   After putting part of the banana chips in the food processor and crushed them in a fine powder and melting the butter with the maple syrup in a pan, you pour all of it on the freshly made popcorn and include the rest of the banana chips.   The recipe is easy to do – even my oldest son could do it.   However, I am uncertain of the result.   The popcorn taste different – more sweet – but the texture is bizarre as the butter has shrunk the popcorn when I poured it.     Maybe we just are a family who are not enjoying sweet popcorn that much…

Crumbled banana chips.

Maple syrup with butter.

The final product.

The next recipes we will more than likely do is the paprika smoky bacon popcorn as well as the thai spiced popcorn.   And one of my boys really want to try to popcorn nachos topped with tomatoes, avocados and cheese.  The picture looks fabulous so we will more than likely try it as well.

Each recipe has a photo of the final product which is a wonderful thing because I like to see what the recipe should be looking like in the end. 

I think this little recipe book contains interesting recipes and that there are a wide range of them to please any popcorn lover.    If your family loves popcorn but is a bit tired of the regular popcorn that you eat every time you make some, I would suggest that you try out the Popcorn Treats cookbook.  You might find a new favorite for your family!

Popcorn Treats is available at your favorite bookstore, even amazon.ca.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of the book for review purposes from Thomas Allen. I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way. All opinions expressed here are only my own.