Special Leftover Lunch

The Farm is brimming with tomatoes. After harvest this morning, I brought home a few bruisers for immediate consumption. This quickly evolved into frying thick juicy slices in butter. Out came the leftover chickpeas which had been previously served with lemon, parsley, garlic and red pepper flakes. 

Let this group sear in the cast iron skillet while the quinoa cooks*. Everything was then heaped ("staged") in a bowl. For a final flourish, some crumbled goat cheese brought this to a melt in your mouth finale!

*I've taken plenty of advice from how-to videos lately and thought, "Let's find one about cooking quinoa." Well, there are too many varieties! It's not worth it. Cooking the quinoa today included, boiling for 5 minutes, drain, then steaming it over boiling water for 10 minutes. Fluffy quinoa results. Several videos mentioned removing the bitter flavor by toasting or rinsing. I've never tried either of these techniques. 

Tomatos and Rice - Thank You!

I was about to post another "guest chef" post from Cathy but then realized she had actually passed along another recipe from a mutual favorite - Smitten Kitchen. Impulsive Tatziki is in the background- this time as a dipping sauce.