Spicy Fall Meal
End of summer and beginning of fall are blessed times for whoever loves fresh vegetables. These are especially the right moments for you to get your share of french beans and mushrooms. Mixed in a French style stir-fry, you will magnify the mushroom flavors that will be perfectly supplemented by the crunch of the french beans. And there are as man recipes as there are mushroom types. On our side, we tried the cremini mushroom and it was brilliant! With this, you will get a well-needed intake of fibers, B vitamin and phosphorus.
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Add to that a serving of our spicy Turmeric Quinoa and you will get an explosion of flavors along with carbs and proteins (the main energy source and construction bricks of your body). This combination is beautiful in the sense that you can eat the mushrooms & beans alone and same can be said for the quinoa. However, when mixed together, the sharp and vibrant taste of the quinoa really brings out and complement the flavor-infused mushrooms, the french beans providing the pleasure of having something crunchy and consistent to eat. Truly a good vegan meal for the October month and the perfect representation of Cavita (Trinidadian East Indian flavours) and Antoine (French Flavours) in the kitchen. Enjoy!
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The ingredients are given for 4 medium servings.
INGREDIENTS
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Ingredients for Mushroom French Beans
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1 lb of French beans, with edges removed
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8 oz of mushroom, cleaned, peeled & sliced
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1 garlic clove, peeled & chopped
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1 tbsp of olive oil
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1 tbsp of white wine
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1 tbsp of butter
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2 sprigs of fresh thyme
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Salt
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Pepper
Ingredients for Turmeric Quinoa
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1 cup of quinoa
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2 cup of boiling water
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1 vegi Maggi cube
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2 tbsp of powdered coconut milk
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1/2 tsp of powdered turmeric
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DIRECTIONS
Preparing the Turmeric Quinoa
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Either cook the quinoa according to the package instructions (quinoa to water and cooking time) by putting in the water the vegi Maggi cube, the Maggi powder coconut milk and the turmeric.
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Or, in a saucepan, add the boiling water, the vegi Maggi cube, the powdered coconut milk and the powdered turmeric. Bring back the mix to a boil. Add the quinoa in the sauce pan and stir so that the quinoa get coated by the liquid. Bring back the whole to a boil. Cover, and let it cook under low fire until the water has been absorbed or evaporated. Remove the cover and fluff the quinoa with a spoon or spatula. It is ready!
Preparing the Mushroom and the French Green Beans
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In a saucepan, put to boil a big volume of water. In the meantime, wash and rinse the beans. Cut the stringy ends. Once the water is boiling, put the beans to boil for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, strain the beans and rinse them under cold water to stop the cooking process. Your beans should be cooked and still a bit crunchy.
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Wash, peel and slice your mushrooms. Peel and chop finely the garlic clove. In a fry-pan, add the olive oil and put on medium to high fire. Once the oil is hot (but before it starts smoking), add the mushrooms, the garlic, the thyme and salt and pepper to your taste. Stir fry for around 6 minutes until the mushrooms get golden. Add the white wine and stir the vegetables to coat them with the wine. Once the wine has evaporated, add the butter and the beans and reduce the fire to low to medium. Stir the whole so that the beans get coated with all the flavors lying in the pan. Once the beans are warm and the butter melted, your Mushroom French Beans are ready.
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Assembling/packing the meal
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Depending on when you want to eat this meal, you can pack it many different ways. In our case, this was our lunch and we decided to plate it in an elegant way. For the quinoa dome, fill a measuring cup with quinoa, compacting it along the way. Unmold it in the middle of a wide plate. Using a pincer, spread around the dome some beans and mushroom. And there you have a fully vegan meal!
