Leeks are in season and it’s still hot enough to fire up the BBQ and pack some goodness into your kiddies’ lunch boxes.
When I was a child the smell of leeks cooking in butter and served on the plate bare makes me shudder. I can’t even remember if it was at our own family home but somewhere along the way I have been given over cooked cabbage with leek sliced up in rings with it. That still makes me fearful of leeks as an adult!
Perhaps this sort of event along the way has perked up my interest in finding ways of making food taste great and using variety in my cooking. Our son who is forever fussy liked this recipe I mixed up yesterday as a trial before unleashing on you!
We have very little dairy in our house but like to use an ever increasing ingredient circulating the healthy eating websites, nutritional yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and yes, yeast is a fungus). I get my nutritional yeast from the health store; it makes everything taste really cheesy and in this recipe have folded it into the aioli so as not to cook out it’s goodness.
I’ve managed to find a few ways to hide this Autumn harvest veggie so next season I’ll be sure to plant more. It takes so long to grow; I’d rather plant in excess and have too much than not enough like this year by the looks of it. This recipe makes good use of those end of summer herbs too with lots of healthy sage and parsley. The quinoa is high in protein so makes for a great lunch snack to keep the kids going strong with brain food.
Peak with Leek and Quinoa Sausages
Gluten free, sugar free, dairy free, nut free
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup quinoa (will expand to 1 cup once cooked)
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil for cooking them in
- White of 1 large leek
- 1 teaspoon dried sage
- ½ cup of flat leaf parsley
- 1 cup gluten free bread crumbs
- 2 free range eggs
- 1 tsp good quality dijon mustard
- sea salt & black pepper
Method:
- Rinse quinoa well for 30 seconds under running water to get rid of the bitter taste it has when cooked. If this is one tip that I learnt by accident then it has been worth it. We eat lots of quinoa now because of it. Cook quinoa in salted water as per packet instructions and set aside in a colander to cool. Your quinoa would now have expanded to give you 1 cup.
- In food processor blitz the leek and parsley together so it is nice and fine
- Heat 1 teaspoon of the coconut oil in a skillet and fry the finely chopped leek until glassy and tender
- Stir leek and herbs into quinoa
- Crack eggs into mix and whisk with fork before stirring in with mustard and dried sage to thoroughly combine all ingredients together
- Season with sea salt and white pepper
- Cover and place in fridge for at least 30 mins or preferably overnight to allow the ingredients to stick together and the herb taste to mature
- Take ½ cupfuls of mixture and squash into sausage shapes about 1 ½ cm x 5 cm long (perfect as a dip stick or to fit in a lunch box).
- Heat your skillet or BBQ plate to medium and cook turning your sausages regularly
This recipe can be made into little dipping patties as well if you were looking for a change from sausage shapes or even burger shaped patties for the BBQ. This morning I have made a batch of patties and eaten with eggs, aioli made with virgin olive oil, eggs and mustard finished off with my home made saucy salsa.
For dinner party snacks, or the kids lunch box, serve with dipping sauce of your choice. I love a good plum sauce which I made from all of the neighbours plums that arrived on our door step in buckets!
Makes approx. 15 ‘sausages’
Recipe by Maria Quayle-Guppy