Quinoa, quinoa and CHOCOLATE for Friday

Moving from Brisbane to Central Queensland has been a bit of a challenge. Brisbane was small but it seemed big compared to here. There was more variety of shops, things were easier to get a hold of and there were more things to do.. But, there a plenty of wonderful things about Central Queensland too. For one thing, I feel that I am on a permanent holiday and the weather is PERFECT here. We have a wonderful, wonderful house and are about 10 minutes from everything... What more could a person ask for?!? I have also found a good Health Food Store and have also discovered the the IGA Supa next to my gym has a good organic selection so things are looking up! 

Anyway, back to my favourite topic... Cooking With Tenina, my idol has done it again. She has managed to take a combination that I would not have dreamed about and put it together into something really, really good. My husband, the quinoa skeptic is going to love these. I have already given some to my friends who just wolfed it down. Even her 3 year old LOVED them. My friend has a 6 month old and I am trying to help out by making a few treats for the family so she can have a break.

This is again from her Keeping It Simple cookbook and is entitled Quinoa Chocolate Truffles. These are GF and suitable for Vegetarians.  I didn't do a step by step pictures as I wasn't originally going to be putting this on the web and I couldn't be bothered to make them into balls so I just made them into brownies... However, after tasting them and getting a thumbs up from a 3 year old,  I decided to take a photo of the end product. 

The recipe is as follows:

Ingredients:

100g quinoa, rinsed and drained (I used a mix of white and red)

1L water for steaming

200g almonds roasted (I dry roast in my cast iron frying pan)

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

200g Belgian dark chocolate (I used 50% dark chocolate but next time it will be 72%)

20g pure maple syrup (I used glucose syrup)

Pinch pink salt flakes

Cocoa for rolling

Choc coated Crio Beans for garnish

Do:

1. Place quinoa into TM simmering basket, insert into TM bowl and pour water over the top. Cook 18-20 min/100 degree C/speed 3.

2. Remove basket from bowl, drain water and allow quinoa to cool.

3. Place roasted almonds into clean, dry TM bowl and mill 20-90 sec/speed 9 until a paste starts to form. 

4. Add vanilla, chocolate, maple syrup and salt and melt 4-5min/60 degree C/speed 1.

5. Add quinoa and blend 6 - 20 sec/speed 6.

6. Set in a metal tray in fridge until solid.

Note - because I decided that I was not going to make truffles, I just spread the mixture out and let it go solid.

7. Form into truffles, roll in cocoa and top with choc coated Crio Beans or almond to garnish

Sit down, have a cup of tea and indulge....