1cupuncooked red quinoaJust use regular quinoa if you can’t get red. Need 2 cups cooked
1cupdried black beansneed 1 cup cooked. Could use canned black beans
1onion
4clovesgarlic
parsley stalks
1cupcorn kernelsfreshly blanched or frozen
2medium red peppers
2large mild chillis
1Japanese eggplanta long one, maybe about 250mm
3/4cupcrumbled fetaabout 100 g
1/2cupgrated cheeseabout 60 g. Cheddar or gruyere work well
1/2cupfinely diced parsley
125gfresh mozzarella
Instructions
Black beans and quinoa
If using dried black beans, soak in fresh water overnight.
Soak the dried mushrooms in cold water for 5 minutes.
Agitate the mushrooms gently to displace any grit.
Allow to sit for 5 more minutes for the grit to sink to the bottom.
While trying not to disturb the grit at the bottom of the bowl, transfer the slightly rehydrated mushrooms to another bowl and pour over the 2 cups of hot water. Allow to sit for 2 hours. After 2 hours, the soaking water will be a deep brown colour.
Remove the mushrooms from the water, finely dice, and set aside.
Combine the water, vegetable stock, and mushroom water.
Cook the quinoa in 2 cups of this stock. Use a rice cooker if you have one.
Drain the black beans from the soaking liquid and rinse.
Peel the onion and garlic, but keep whole.
Tie up the parsley stalks with cooking twine.
Add the beans to a saucepan. Add the other 2 cups of stock, the parsley stalks, the onion and the garlic.
Bring to a boil the reduce to a simmer.
Simmer for 40 minutes or so. They should be soft enough to be edible by then.
Remove the onion and parsley stalks. The garlic would probably have disintegrated by this time.
Drain the beans and rinse.
Keep 1 cup of beans and freeze the rest for use in another recipe.
Keep 2 cups quinoa and freeze the rest for use in another recipe.
Red peppers and chillis
Remove pith and seeds from the mild chillis.
Dice very finely.
Halve the red peppers and remove the stalk and white pith.
Smear with olive oil and grill until the skins are black.
Remove from the oven, place in a bowl, and cover with plastic wrap. Allow to cool.
Peel off the skins of the red peppers, then dice into 5x5mm pieces.
Eggplant
In a saucepan add 2 cups water and 2 Tbsp salt. Stir until the salt has dissolved.
Top and tail then peel the skin off the eggplant.
Cut the eggplant into 10x10cm pieces.
Add the diced eggplant to the brine and soak for 20 minutes.
Dry the eggplant on paper towels, then toss in olive oil.
Grill the eggplant for 10 minutes, toss, then grill some more until golden bits start forming.
Assembly
Preheat the oven to 200 degC.
In a large bowl add the 2 cups quinoa, 1 cup cooked black beans, corn, red peppers, eggplant, diced rehydrated mushrooms, mild chillis, diced parsley, grated cheese, and crumbled feta. Toss gently to combine.
Slice the fresh mozzarella and add to the top.
Bake for 45 minutes.
Grill a little more to brown the top if necessary.