Sunday, November 21, 2010

Iron Chef! Battle Portobella Mushrooms and Chipotles


The more I heard about the ice this morning, the less I wanted to get up and go to the store. I was given until 5:00pm my time to do this, and I had to blog it as well as pack it up and head out to Turkey Free Thanksgiving. I got into the Vikings game (tick tock), fell asleep briefly (tick tick tick), and finally got up and slid down the street to the bus and picked up what I needed. My timing was perfect, because I ran into my friend Aaron in the checkout line! We're going to pig out on vegan yummies tonight.

Back to the dish. I have felt just...ugh...since last night. My body is rejecting all the crap from last week. I feel it is necessary to have a week of healthy foods. Namely, salads. Big salads, with a lot of stuff in it. I brainstormed while watching the Vikings lay an egg, and came up with an idea for a chipotle cream. The rest just fell into place. Then I saw red quinoa at the Wedge, and threw that in the basket.

chipotle_portosalad 003


Grilled Portobella Salad with Red Quinoa and Chipotle Cream


Marinade:
1/2 cup Bragg's
few shots of hot sauce
1 tbsp crushed garlic
couple glugs of olive oil
a little salt
One pound portobella mushrooms, washed, degilled, and sliced.

Mix up the marinade. Put the mushrooms in it. Let sit about a half hour.

Salad:
3/4 pound baby greens
1 cup cooked and cooled red quinoa
Grilled red onions, if you want.

Cilantro vinaigrette dressing:
Bunch cilantro
1/3 cup olive oil
3/4 cup champagne vinegar

Blend all ingredients. Salt and adjust to taste.

Heat your grill. If you're putting onions in it, grill those first. Salt while cooking, so they caramelize nicely. Remove with grabbers and set aside.
Grill your marinated mushrooms until brown on both sides.

Toss greens with quinoa and onions. Add other veggies if you want; grape tomatoes, corn, etc. Toss with the cilantro vinaigrette (do this close to serving time). Plate salads, and top each with a few slices of mushroom. Spoon on a little chipotle cream.

Chipotle cream:

1 cup Mimicreme unsweetened
1/2 small can of chipotles in adobo sauce (mostly chipotles)

Blend until smooth. Taste, salt.

2 comments:

Jen Treehugger said...

Oooh that looks amazing. I had a salad yesterday 'cos my body was craving it. Good old salad.

Stacy said...

Megan,
This is Stacy from http://www.petsweekly.com and I wanted to let you know that you won the SmartyKat prize from last week's drawing. I couldn't find an email for you, so please forgive my leaving a comment. You can contact me at petsweekly[at]gmail.com[dot]com with your mailing address. Thanks and Congratulations!