Yam and Quinoa Fritters with Walnut Cream Sauce

This recipe is for the fritters not I'll admit it everything on the side salad was store bought. It's just mixed greens, tomatoes, almonds, and a raspberry vinaigrette dressing.

Yam and Quinoa Fritters

• 2 medium Yams peeled and grated
• 1/2 red onion grated
• 1/4 cup grated gruyere cheese
• 1/3 cup cooked quinoa
• 2 teaspoons of diced garlic
• 2 eggs
• 2 table spoons flour
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
• salt and pepper to taste
• Olive oil (or any kind of oil vegetable, peanut, whale fat)

1. First I would start cooking the quinoa. If you don't know how to cook quinoa, I'd recommend checking out Pinterest, like 90% of the recipes on that site have quinoa in them.
2. Heat the oil in a large pan to medium high heat.
3. Peel the yams and grate them. Grate the onions. Place the grated vegetables on paper towels and squeeze the juice out. Once you've juiced the yams and onions place them in a large mixing bowl with the gruyere cheese, garlic, eggs, flour, and garlic salt. Mix together with your hands, yes your hands. Before you mix in the quinoa make sure it's cooled, because if you put hot quinoa into the mix you'll cook the eggs.
4. Make small patties of the mixture and place into the pan of oil. Brown each side of the fritters, usually about 5 minutes per side.

Walnut Cream Sauce

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup crushed walnuts
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup grated gruyere cheese
• 2 tablespoons honey
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Melt the butter on medium heat. Toast the walnuts in the butter, just brown them a bit. Add the heavy cream, cheese, honey and seasoning.
2. Once the cheese has melted reduce the cream on low heat for 15 minutes.

Serve the cream sauce over the fritters and topped with basil or some other sort of garnish, I'll admit to not eating the basil, it just looks nice. In my opinion having a nice side salad with the fritters counteracts the oil the fritters were fried in. Enjoy!

Quinoa Tacos

What to do with the left over filling of those stuffed peppers...How about making tacos? I just heated the filling from this recipe in a skillet and scooped it into some corn tortillas.

Quinoa Stuffed Bell Peppers

The three words I would use to describe this dish would be healthy, colorful, and delicious. These stuffed peppers are both filling and very light at the same time by the time you finish them you're full, but not stuffed (see what I did there?). 

Quinoa Stuffed Bell Peppers

• 1/2 cup quinoa cooked
• 1 can of black beans drained and rinsed
• 4 bell peppers stem and seeds removed 
• 1/4 lbs. of ground pork chorizo 
• 1/3 cup coarsely chopped onion
• 3 cloves of garlic minced
• 1/2 of a large zucchini coarsely chopped
• 10 grape tomatoes cut into quarters
• 6 small mushrooms sliced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 tablespoons taco seasoning
• a dash of cayenne pepper if you have it

These things go on top of the peppers:

• hot sauce
• avocados
• cheddar cheese
• sour cream

1. Boil the water for quinoa about 1 cup of water. Once it reaches a boil turn down to a simmer and cook until the water is gone.
2. While the quinoa is cooking take out a skillet and add the olive oil, onions, and garlic Once the onions become golden brown in color add the mushrooms. Deglaze the pan with a splash of white wine or water. Then add the chorizo.
3. Oh did you preheat the oven to 375? You should probably do that now.
4. Once the chorizo is browned add the zucchini, taco seasoning, and cayenne pepper. Mix so that the taco seasoning is no longer visible as giant clumps of red stuff. Then add the cooked beans, tomatoes, and the cooked quinoa. Mix.
5. Scoop the filling into the peppers. Place the pepper into a casserole dish or meatloaf dish, really anything that can go in the oven and can hold 4 bell peppers.
6. Place the peppers into the oven for 20 minutes.
7. Remove the peppers from the oven. Cut vertically and top it with cheddar cheese, sour cream avocado, and hot sauce, or whatever you think would be good. 

A healthy dinner that's not terribly complex to make and it looks festive. This dish can easily be turned into a vegetarian dish by replacing the chorizo with some sort of meat substitute. Are you still reading this? You should be stuffing your face with this stuffed pepper by now!

Photos by Katy Weaver