Meatless Monday: Omuquinoa

When I lived in Seoul, my favorite place to eat was at "Mom's." "Mom" was the proprietor of a little kimbap iagi franchise that was just down the street from our apartments. My roommate, Hallie, went there all the time and brought me along my first day. It was the start of my lovely relationship with Korean deliciousness.

Anyway, Hallie's the one who originally started calling the owner/cook "Mom." Typically, you'd refer to an older, married woman as "ajuma," which is sort of like "Mrs." or "ma'am." Apparently, ajuma did not like it very much, so Hallie switched and started calling her "uhm-ma," which is "Mom." It stuck. Soon we were all calling her "Mom." She was delighted and often brought us extra plates of kimchi, free noodles, etc.

Anyway, all of this backstory does have a point, I promise: one of my favorite dishes was om rice. As you can probably guess, it was a rice omelet. Usually, they're full of ham as well, but I learned enough Korean to clumsily request the dish without it. Om rice is a fabulous dish. It's filling, warm, and comforting. It provides a great mix of protein and starch and it's not spicy or oily or otherwise upsetting to peaky bellies. While I generally wanted kimchi chige (this will be an entry another time, I'm sure), sometimes, when I was feeling gloomy and homesick, om rice would turn me right around.

The other night I got to thinking... could I do this with quinoa? The answer is yes. And it is wonderful. Since quinoa is healthier than white rice (and cooks a heck of a lot faster than brown rice), it's an excellent filling.

Cook a batch of quinoa. You'll only need one cup of cooked quinoa, but why not make more while you're at it?

Here's what you'll need:
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/4 c. onion, chopped
1/4 c. red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 veggie hot dog, chopped
1 scant c. cooked quinoa
a splash of soy sauce or tamari (optional)
2 eggs
1 t. Earth Balance
katsu sauce (get at your local Asian market... ketchup apparently is also good)

Get everything chopped before you start.

Use about half of the Earth Balance to sauté the onion, garlic, pepper, and hot dog over medium heat. You want everything to be cooked and soft, but try to keep from letting it get brown and crispy. When that's done, add the cooked quinoa and a splash of soy sauce/tamari and stir until the quinoa is nice and hot. Scoop into a bowl and set aside.

Wipe out the pan, add the rest of the Earth Balance, and let it heat up again. In the meantime, whisk the 2 eggs well (add salt and pepper if you want to). When the pan is hot and coated with Earth Balance, pour in the eggs. Give the pan a quick turn to coat the bottom with the eggs. Leave it to cook. Once it's mostly set, slide the spatula underneath (carefully) and flip the egg disc. Obviously, a non-stick pan helps here.

Top with the hot quinoa-veggie-hot-dog mixture and fold over onto a plate. Pour on some katsu sauce or ketchup to taste and chow down. Eat this one with a spoon for a slightly more authentic Korean experience.

Note: the veggies aren't set in stone. Definitely use onion if you enjoy it, as that's traditional. However, bell pepper just happened to be what was on sale at the store and featured in one of the recipes I consulted. You could also use grated carrots, frozen peas, corn, some shredded greens, etc. Of course, you could also use another grain. :-)