Sunday, May 13, 2012

Bento, Soyrizo Saute, Black Bean Pineapple Rice, Millet Polenta  


This is just a semi-bento meal of mine, the round has cold stuff, and the plate is warmed up stuff that was originally meant to be wrapped in a tortilla, but alas, my gluten free fail! I couldn't even manage to find corn tortillas at the stores I went to that week, only flour. So I wound up with this. It was still a very yummy feast though! Also I had it all with a cup of cherry limeade.. mmmn.

Plate:
1) Soyrizo, and sauteed squash, zucchini, onions, etc  - I had planned to put this in quesadillas, wound up just melting the daiya cheese over it all instead
2) rice with black beans and pineapples - the rice was soaked trying out this method and then cooked with chipotle and cilantro in broth
Round:
1)  Millet "polenta" with my sausage spice blend(first recipe on this page, that I found doing a search for "best millet recipe" after all my previous attempts have failed and ended in the range of "If millet is cooked improperly it can become very dense, hard, and useless." side of things. The key was in soaking it first, otherwise it never softened up for me.) I cooked some into patties and they were awesome! But too delicate for bento really, and best warm. They reminded me of a cross between potato cakes and polenta. The tastetesters said they reminded them of Bread Stuffing with my seasonings that way.
2) Elbow pasta(a brand made from brown rice) in a hummous(homemade and raw, it had a different almost meaty and filling texture, then I made it less creamy, with extra spices added for this.)
3) Caribbean-Sweet-Potato-Salad -this is something my roomies found and altered one night, we made it a whole theme.
What they ended up with was as follows: 
Potatoes, diced 1/2" cubes.  
Boil until just tender but not mushy. Strain in collander, then immerse in cold water to stop cooking...leave just until about room temp; salt to taste. 
Saute mild chiles (we had hot bananas, but Anaheim or Poblano would work) with red onion until just soft; 
add pineapple diced 1/4" and saute just until hot. 
Add to potatoes, along with fine chopped red or orange bell pepper. 
Dressing: Lime juice, coconut milk, olive oil (about a 2:2:1 ratio)... add garlic (paste or chopped) and finely chopped cilantro. About a teaspoon or 2 of dijon mustard in the dressing Sweeten dressing to taste with sugar or agave syrup ( I used agave). Toss with potato mixture. Enjoy!

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