Quinoa Vegetable Stack

I decided to have some of my friends over for dinner to celebrate my friend Tania's Birthday.  I asked Tania what she would like and she gave me a list of ingredients: quinoa, eggplant, tomatoes, zucchini, and kale.  This is what I came up with:

I love challenges like this!  Forces you to be super creative.

Tania's Quinoa Vegetable Stack

Serves 4-6

What you'll need:

1 cup of quinoa, prepared as the package instructs

a handful of pine nuts, toasted

1 eggplant, sliced into discs and grilled

about 1 cup of ricotta cheese, homemade or store bought (I like Polly-O the best)

1 zucchini, sliced lengthwise and grilled

1 head of kale, rinsed really well and massaged with 1 tbsp. salt

tomato sauce, your recipe or mine

fresh basil leaves

What you'll do:

Make your tomato sauce.  Grill your eggplant and zucchini.  At the same time, make the quinoa according to the package directions, but add in a spoonful of tomato sauce and 2 cloves of chopped garlic. (quinoa always needs a little flavor help) After it's done cooking, stir in the handful of toasted pine nuts.

Lay out your plates on the counter and begin plating.  First, put a spoonful of quinoa in the center of the plate.  Next a disc of eggplant followed by a dollop of ricotta cheese.  Then fold each slice of zucchini in half and place on top of the cheese.  Lay another disc of eggplant on top and top with the kale and a basil leaf.  Now I serve them like this and have a bowl of tomato sauce on the table for guests to ladel on top.

** massaging kale: I love raw kale; it has such a lovely texture. As weird as it sounds, yes you massage the kale.  In detail, you'll wash the kale well, chop it and place it in a bowl.  Add in some salt and massage the kale until it shrinks to about a quarter of where it started from.  To finish, rinse and drain well. That's it.

Tools I used:

Grill Pan

Colander

Check out "Things I Love" for more fun stuff!

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