Spicy Chickpea Casserole with Quinoa

I wasn't sure how well this would be received - my children aren't picky eaters by any stretch of the imagination, but they are all under 6. I needn't have worried though. Miss Four thought "chicken peas" was hilarious, and after I told them that chickpeas were the main ingredient in hummus, which they all adore, Master Five couldn't get enough of his "hummus nuts"! Pictured is DP's serve, which had less tomatoes than was really proportionate, so it doesn't look as red as it should, but this was a fitting meal for the Cookbook Challenge "Red" week.

In turn, I love this cookbook, all slow cooker recipes, with a lot of attitude, and hilarious mum talk asides that had me bookmarking quite a few pages.

Spicy Chickpea Casserole with Quinoa (from How to make Love & Dinner at the Same Time by Rebecca Jager)
1 red pepper [capsicum], chopped
1 red onion, chopped
2 carrots, thinly sliced
2 [425g] cans chickpeas, rinsed and drained
2 [400g] cans diced tomatoes
1/3 cup quinoa, uncooked
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/4 tsp pepper

Combine all the ingredients in the slow cooker.
Cook on LOW for 8 to 10 hours, or on HIGH for 4 to 5 hours.
Remove the bay leaf, and serve.

This was an entry for
The Cookbook Challenge: Week 22 - Red.

Cauliflower soup and Tomato Quinoa Bread

Very tasty

Now I've blogged upand down about my Cauliflower Soup, so I'm not going to do it again tonight. Besides, I menu planned this particular soup to go with the bread tonight, as that is the real star. I saw an intriguing recipe for Tomato-Quinoa Bread over at Kitchen Confit which I though would be balanced nicely by the tasty but not overly complicated soup. (It was)

Now, you all know me, I'm pretty lazy when it comes to doing things the old fashioned way, especially if I have a gadget for it. And I also never have bread flour in the house, buying, as I do, bread mix instead. So without further ado, I present an adapted recipe for:

Bread Machine Tomato Quinoa Bread
1 tsp active dry yeast
1/3 cup lukewarm water
1 cup seasoned vegetable juice - such as V8
1/2 cup quinoa
1 pound bread mix

Place all ingredients in bread machine and cook on your preffered setting. I used medium crust, but I think perhaps I should have done dark, as only the quinoa in the centre was cooked. Which is fine, if you are after a multi-grain crunch type thing happening, but I wasn't expecting that, and so was a little disappointed. Also a problem was I didn't remember to buy the V8 when I did my non-Aldi shop, and so I used the juice from a can of whole peeled tomatoes that is for tomorrow's lasagna. This didn't give much of a tomato-y flavour to the bread, just made it a delicate pink colour.

My dodgy camera could not do justice to the lovely pink colour

There is only two slices left, which I plan on having for lunch tomorrow. Master Four ate two pieces, Miss Two ate and and a half, and all the soft bits off the crust that she could scrape. So almost two full slices? Even DP said it was nice, but I don't know if he'd ask for it to be cooked again. I think I might, because quinoa is so good for you, and I have a whole packet here with only 1/2 cup taken out of it. Look out for some more quinoa dishes coming next fortnight! I might have some help finding these, at the Round Up to Let It Grain!. This is a brand new event from Baking A Sweet Life and I'm really looking forward to it. I used to cook with quinoa all the time when Master Four was only one, before we moved across the other side of Melbourne and I didn't know where to find it anymore. Now we are down in Geelong, and this was just the kick in the rear end I needed to go out and find a new source! Anyway, if you're a keen quinoa fan, (hehe) then post your recipes over thatta way until September 1st, and I'll see you at the round up on September 6th.