Cooking Day: Leek and Kabocha Soup

[flit]

I was really worn out most of today, but spurred by the cries of ten thousand vegetables in my crisper I got up and made a big batch of kabocha-leek soup and a big helping of quinoa. (The latter hardly counts as cooking as the rice cooker handled it.) I also chopped rutabagas, parsnips, and beets for roasting but was too tired to actually roast

Comments

[indigo]

You can make quinoa in a rice cooker? I never thought of that. Might prompt me to buy a rice cooker since I always manage to screw up rice on the stove and hence have been avoiding it.

[flit]

You can, and it came out very nicely. However it takes more water: I used two rice cooker cups of quinoa and four rice cooker cups of water, which came up to the "three cups" line on my rice cooker.

You also want to rinse quinoa in warm water before using it; it has a bitter coating of saponin. Most that you can get here has already had that coating removed before it was sold, but if yours has been coming out bitter, that's why.

You can make all sorts of crazy things in a rice cooker; I've made azuki beans and garbanzo beans starting from dry beans, too.

[indigo]

Any tips for rice cooker purchasing? I'm only cooking for one and tend not to want to make much more than I would eat at one sitting, so I don't need a large capacity (unless that leads to a superior cooker or something - I still cook pasta for one in a medium-size kettle, etc). I'm probably just going to Target rather than getting fancy with it, but it seems like they still have several choices.

[indigo]

Note that "one sitting" is usually "more than a side dish portion" - I tend to eat sequentially rather than eating a variety at one sitting, so I'd probably make rice for "2-3" according to the package.

[anonymous]

i love Kabocha squash. I have one waiting for me to roast. You were ambitious with 4, lol. and I, too, never made quinoa in my rice cooker but I will now. thanks.

[flit]

Four was just plain *crazy*. I think I'll just freeze most of the last for sides, since I will happily eat it plain or cook it with things.

I am quite happy with how this soup turned out; it's not too much like pumpkin pie though on the sweet side and mace always gives me an interesting "no really, what IS that?" sort of reaction, even though I already know. Kabocha has a depth of flavor (and sort of a dry flavor) compared to pumpkin, too.