One Big Table

I am very happy and excited to be a featured amateur chef in a book that is coming out next year. My quinoa pilaf recipe will be published along with my brief bio. The book is One Big Table, by Molly O’Neill (Simon & Schuster 2010).

"One Big Table" is highly anticipated and is a portrait of America at table. With ten years of researching, it covers America in every geography, ethnicity, culture, religion, and history through the recipes of what they call “the glorious amateur”.

More on Molly O'Neill: O'Neill spent 10 years at the New York Times, has four James Beard Awards, numerous cookbooks including the famous New York Cookbook and American Food Writing, a James Beard nominee this year. She was also the host of PBS Great Food and is a professionally trained chef. More on the Editor, Ramin Ganeshram: Ganeshram is an award winning journalist of IndoCaribbean-Iranian descent. She wrote for the New York Times for 8 years, New York Newsday for 8 years, and many other magazines and papers as a freelancer.

Quinoa Pilaf
by Erin Drasher

Ingredients

1 cup quinoa

2 cups water

1 medium onion chopped

2 garlic cloves minced

3 golden beets, roasted and chopped

1/3 cup loosely packed raisins

2 cups baby spinach

1 oz crumbled goat cheese

2 tbs sunflower seeds

2 tbs olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

chopped parsley to garnish

Add quinoa to a medium saucepan and lightly toast over medium heat. To the sauce pan add the water and the raisins. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cover. Cook 15 minutes.

While quinoa is cooking, sauté onions over medium heat until translucent. Add garlic and spinach. Sauté spinach until just wilted. Add the beets and cooked quinoa to the spinach onion mixture and toss. Transfer to a serving bowl, salt and pepper to taste and toss with the goat cheese. Top with sunflower seeds and chopped parsley and serve.

To roast the beets:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Trim off tops of beets. Brush with olive oil and wrap in aluminum foil. Roast beets 45 minutes to an hour. Remove and cool until you can handle them. To slip the skins off, rub them under running water.