I have anaheims ripening in the garden. I'm quite fond of anaheims. I more commonly stuff queso fresco and/or quinoa in larger peppers. But I prefer the flavor of anaheims! Obviously enough to have grown quite a few in my porch garden. So, that is definitely something that I am going with today! I also have Quinoa w/ Daikon, Walnuts, & Lime as well as freshly ripened cherry tomatoes. So, today I am endeavoring to make queso fresco quinoa.
I can often be found making eggs for breakfast. I'm fond of scrambled and runny egg dishes as well as lightly fried tofu. Although the quinoa already has tofu in it. So, making a tofu steak isn't quite what I'm looking for here. And I made a scrambled egg version of this recipe just a few days ago! So, I decided to mix things up a little bit today and simply do a salad.
I'm a big fan of salads. Not your typical salads with copious amounts of flavorless lettuce drenched in artificial ingredients-laden, doesn't even count as food salad dressings. But fresh fruits and vegetables with quinoa and a touch of queso fresco stuffed peppers? That is something that I could eat every day without compromising taste!
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Variations of Queso Fresco Quinoa
There are so many ways to make a salad. Rarely when I'm speaking of making a "salad" do I mean what you generally think of as salad. I have to say that I'm a much bigger fan of wine poached salmon tofu steak salads than what might more typically come to mind. So, let's make salads that are actually worth eating! And typically healthier to boot. Because take a look at the ingredients list in that ranch dressing and tell me how many things thay you can both recognize and want to put into your body.
This queso fresco quinoa salad combines queso-stuffed anaheim peppers with daikon quinoa and freshly chopped cherry tomatoes. You can easily substitute the quinoa for lentils, scrambled eggs, or even just a bed of lettuce. Although I tend to always have a batch of quinoa lying around to toss into salads and such. This one's a daikon quinoa with red onion, ginger, garlic, freshly squeezed lime juice, tahini, tamari, rice vinegar, walnuts, and tofu. You can easily put anything you like into a rice cooker, though! It's a great recipe to make your own.
Add all of the ingredients, except for the tofu and walnuts, into a rice cooker. I like to start with the larger vegetables and then add the smaller ingredients. Top with the spices and citrus juice. And then add the quinoa and water.
Press the cook button on the rice cooker. While quinoa is not rice, it does cook the same and oftentimes better than rice in a rice cooker. It typically takes 30-45 minutes.
While the quinoa is cooking, drain the water out of the tofu and cut into cubes. Wrap in paper towels to absorb the moisture.It's important to absorb as much water out of the tofu as you can. Oil is less dense than water, so the molecules repel one another. With cold ingredients, this causes separation. When you're frying at high temperatures, though, this can cause boiling hot oil to spray back at you.
Meanwhile, preheat oil in a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat.
When the skillet has preheated and the majority of the water has absorbed into the paper towels, carefully add the tofu to the skillet. Fry until golden brown. This should take about 2-4 minutes. Rotate until all sides are evenly fried.
When the quinoa is fully cooked, add tofu and walnuts.
Fluff with a wooden spoon and serve, either immediately or make ahead of time and refrigerate.
Roast Peppers
Cut the tops off of the Anaheim peppers. Take a small knife and de-vein and de-seed the peppers.The goal here is to hollow out the peppers, without compromising the shape. It's easier to stuff them when there aren't holes in them for the cheese to spill out! I'll use a long, sharp paring knife for this. That way it will fit inside of the pepper and you can just twist it around to remove the seeds. If you're careful and the knife is sharp enough, you can also slice through the veins and pull them out. You don't have to remove every single vein and seed, but they are quite bitter. So, removing as much of the innards as possible is preferable.
Crumble queso fresco and stuff inside of the Anaheim peppers.It helps to crumble the cheese before trying to stuff the peppers. That way, you can push it into the bottom tip of the pepper, without poking through the flesh. This can be easier said than done! Especially with larger pieces of cheese. Although crumbling it certainly helps as well as stuffing small amounts of cheese at a time.I also like to fill the end of the peppers with a larger chunk of queso fresco. This serves as a kind of cap to the peppers to keep the crumbled bits of cheese from falling out during the roasting process.
Put stuffed peppers in the air fryer and roast for 8-10 minutes, or until the peppers begin to char and turn slightly brown in color. Make sure to rotate somewhere between half and three-quarters of the way through the roasting process in order to cook evenly.Also make sure that the peppers are propped up as much as possible, to keep the cheese from spilling out. I tend to place them in the air fryer so that the slight curve of the peppers faces upward. Most peppers aren't perfectly straight and lean to a certain direction. Then, when I rotate them to get an even cook, I'll sometimes stack the peppers leaning against one another so that the cheese still faces upwards as much as possible.
Assemble Salad
Place the daikon quinoa on a plate. If you've made it ahead of time, reheat before plating.
Top with tomatoes, stuffed peppers, and a dash of salt and pepper.
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