Another great month of Kitchen Bootcamp has come to a close. This month, I challenged everyone to try some new recipes that involved cooking with grains and legumes (Chapter 27 in The Professional Chef). It turned out to be a bigger challenge than I expected because the “legumes” part may have thrown a few people of… I apologize for that! Basically, legumes are beans… Though, it’s not quite that simple. Here’s a better definition for those of you who are curious!
Now that we’re all on the same page, let’s get to the blog posts!
For this month’s challenge, I made two dishes… To cover the legumes part of the challenge, I whipped up this Roasted Garlic Pasta Salad with White Beans and Spinach. To be sure I didn’t neglect the grains portion of the challenge, I also made a Southwest Quinoa Salad.
I’ve recently started cooking with quinoa, and I love it. I can’t wait to find some black quinoa so that I can give this Black Quinoa and Red Lentil Salad with Parsley from Healthy Green Kitchen.
When I think of Mexican dishes, I typically think of black beans and pinto beans. I love the way this White Bean Mash from eat. live. travel. write. mixes things up a bit!
We all know that I love to bake… Ever since I saw these Birdseed Muffins from What’s Cooking With Kids I’ve been excited about mixing up my usual baking routine with some millet!
I’ve been trying to cut back on sweets, so I’m on a mission to find some new savory snacks that I love. I’m pretty sure this Caramelized Black Bean Butter from TidyMom is going to be one of my new favorites!
We’ve been eating a lot of meatless meals around here lately, which I am thrilled about. But, it’s just not summer without some burgers on the grill! I don’t think I’ll miss the meat at all with these Black Bean Burgers from Simple Bites.
My high school Spanish teacher would be so proud that I remember that borracho means drunk… Ok, maybe he wouldn’t actually be so proud. Either way, I’m pretty excited about “Drunken Rice and Beans” – Arroz con Frijoles Borracho from Bluebonnets & Brownies. You can’t go wrong with rice, pinto beans, and beer.
Please Note – The link to The Professional Chef provided in this post is an Amazon Affiliate Link.
GREAT list of delicious looking dishes here Jen!! I’m off to check them all out…but I have to say, that Roasted Garlic Pasta Salad has REALLY caught my eye!!!
Yum. They all look good, but the SW Quinoa salad, mmmm. I just learned about quinoa, and cooked it for the first time. Your picture with the avocado on top…delish!
I can tell you where to get black Quinoa, along with several other heirloom (and lovely) legumes/grains! Williams Sonoma is carrying a full line of them – including the aforementioned black quinoa, purple sticky rice, lebanese couscous, cranberry and black turtle beans, and some others! I’ve tried several of them – they’re of fantastic quality!
Thanks, Jeanne!
Now I have a good reason to make a trip to Williams-Sonoma. :)
Great round up from your bootcamp! Everything looks so good and healthy.
I have bookmarked each of these recipes for the summer. A fab fab roundup!