Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Roasted asparagus, sauteed portobellos with a balsamic sauce, and quinoa

So last night, pretty late, I decided to roast the asparagus we had in the fridge. So I preheated the oven for 350, cut the tough ends off the asparagus, drizzled them with olive oil, minced garlic, some black pepper, and a squeeze of lemon juice. Mixed that around and put them in the oven. Then I decided to do something with our portobellos, but figured with those two, I needed something else to go along with them, so I made some quinoa, preheated a cast iron pan to medium-high, washed three portobello mushrooms, took the stems off, chopped the stems, and the put the whole caps gill-side up on the pan, the stem pieces in there too, I drizzled some balsamic vinegar into the caps and on the stems, along with some olive oil, and put the lid over it. Keep an eye on your asparagus and flip it as needed. And of course remember to stir your quinoa. Check on the portobellos, they should start turning golden-brown on the bottom, and the sides should start getting a little soft. Flip them once they're golden-brown on the bottom, and then they should be done once they're pretty tender and cooked through. The asparagus should be done when they're tender.
I have a half-cup measuring cup, with rounded corners, so I packed that full of quinoa, and flipped the molded quinoa onto three plates. Then one portobello per plate, gill side up, with the stem pieces on top, some caramelized onions on top would also be good. Then several pieces of asparagus on the plates also. It looks really pretty, and tastes fantastic. Too bad my camera is broken. :/ It also took less than an hour, so it doesn't take too long.
The instructions make it sound pretty complicated, but it was actually pretty easy.

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