Bonus Recipe - Potatoes with Paneer cheese and Leeks

 Bonus Recipe - Butter Chicken Seasoned Potatoes with Paneer Cheese and Leeks

    I had ingredients I needed to use before they went bad. Small potatoes and one leek. What to do? I had chicken broth (you can use vegetable broth) and Patak's - Butter Chicken Seasoning Paste in my refrigerator and decided to make this. I really liked how this came out, but I would try to make it spicier next time. 

Ingredients:

small/baby potatoes or large potatoes (However many you want to cook up; I had about 15 small/baby potatoes)

1 leek, chopped leek

2 cups chicken broth

1 cup cubed paneer cheese

3 tablespoons butter chicken seasoning paste

oil or cooking spray

Directions:

Cube potatoes and cook until soft in boiling water. While your potatoes are cooking, heat a large skillet, add about a tablespoon of oil or generously coat your skillet with cooking spray. When your oil/cooking spray is heated, add the cubed paneer cheese and cook until softer and there are bits of brown on the cubes. Add the leek; cook for a couple minutes and add the chicken broth. Heat till bubbling and thicken with corn starch or flour. Drain cooked potatoes and combine the paneer cheese mixture with the potatoes. Serve with additional chopped leeks (if you like) or even crushed peanuts, raisins, sweet relish or coconut flakes. 

Butter Chicken Seasoned Potatoes with Paneer Cheese and Leeks 

Butter Chicken Seasoned Paneer Cheese and Leek Sauce 

Lemonchick's Leek, Bacon and Quinoa Dish

 Lemonchick's Leek, Bacon and Quinoa Dish

    Dear Readers, I created this recipe this morning.  I've been making a real effort to eat healthier and am also experimenting with alternative protein sources; I'm not anti-meat, but one of my doctors suggested trying to get more protein from sources other than meat, so I am.  One of the things I've discovered that I like, is quinoa. One cup of quinoa contains 8 grams of protein.  I subscribed to Imperfect Foods for about a month and a half, and while it is not a great fit for me, I did get some good produce and tried some new things. For example, I wanted to try leeks, so I got leeks in my last box. There were two leeks and they were huge!!!! I didn't know anything about cooking them, but they are giant versions of the way smaller green onions, so I knew they'd be onion-y (Just like green onions, the closer you get to the bulb, the more onion flavor) and that I could cook them just like you would if green onions.  

    Anyhow, I tossed around the idea of cooking them and making an Asian inspired sauce to serve with.  I went with the much easier, cooked and sauteed with butter.  I had thought about serving them as a side with rice or quinoa, but decided to create a 'salad' if you want to call it that. I'm calling it a 'dish'. So, below is my recipe for my Leek, Bacon and Quinoa Dish.  I enjoyed it; it was pretty easy to make and tasted good, so I would make this again.  

    This can be made without bacon; try cubed or diced paneer cheese or tofu. You could also add a sprinkle of parmesan cheese, because I bet that would be yummy.  This time around, I only did the red chili pepper flakes and salt-substitute.  I didn't want to add to much other seasoning, because the leeks would be flavorful enough (I was right).  

Alone or served as a side with chicken, pork, beef, try this and let me know what you think. 

Ingredients:

1 Cup Quinoa

1 Leek (mine was giant), sliced 

8 Strips of Bacon (or more, this is totally up to you)

Directions:

    Cook quinoa according to directions and set aside; cut the tip of the bulb and slice up your leek. Slice as thin or thick as you like (mine were pretty thin) and drop into a skillet pre-heated with a little bit of oil.  Cook until tender, add butter and stir.  While your leek is cooking, add bacon to another pre-heated skillet.  Cook until both sides are browned, but not crispy and drain on paper-towels. Cut bacon into half inch or so pieces. 

    To assemble this dish, spoon 2 cups of your cooked quinoa into a large serving dish (you'll have about 1 cup of quinoa left; so save that to use in another recipe). Add your sliced leek and bacon and stir to mix all the ingredients.  I added a sprinkle of red pepper chili flakes and salt-substitute. 

Lemonchick's Leek, Bacon and Quinoa Dish