Recipe: Quinoa with Chorizo Verde and Yellow Peppers

Here's a healthy and delicious recipe you can make using local Tampa produce.  

It all starts with Chorizo Verde from the Sausage Laboratory. Earlier this year I created another recipe using their Thai Red Curry chicken sausage. You can find them at farmer's markets all around Tampa -- the Hyde Park Fresh Market, the Tampa Downtown Market and the Westchase Farmer's Market every 2nd Saturday of the month, to name a few. Or, you can find and order their products online.

Recipe: Quinoa with Chorizo Verde and Yellow Peppers

The Sausage Laboratory is a local Tampa company, producing artisan sausages made with humanely-raised natural meat, free of hormones and antibiotics. What makes up this lovely chorizo, which is so incredibly flavorful? Pork, cilantro, green chilies, jalapenos, pepita (pumpkin) seeds, sesame seeds, extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, water,salt, garlic, cumin, chipotle powder, oregano, onion, black bepper, chile powder, cinnamon and bay leaves. 

That's right -- no weird, synthetic ingredients that you can't pronounce. They sausages have NO preservatives and considerably less fat than the packaged pork sausage you get at the grocery store.

Here's how the sausage comes packaged. When you buy it at the Farmers' Markets, it's frozen, so you can shop for a bit and not worry about it going bad. On to the recipe! Let's get cooking.

Ingredients:

• 1 package Sausage Laboratory Chorizo Verde
• 1 cup quinoa
• 1 large tomato, chopped and drained
• 1 yellow pepper, sliced
• 1 cup baby spinach leaves
• Olive oil
• Red wine vinegar

Directions (Makes 3 dinner-size servings, or 4-5 side dish-size servings.)

• Cook quinoa according to package directions. Let cool and stir in the chopped tomatoes, add 1 tbsp. olive oil and 1 tbsp. red wine vinegar, and a dash of sea salt and pepper.
• At the same time, cook the 3 sausages in pan on Medium Low (do not cook them too high heat. The casing is incredibly thin (and not synthetic, like the ones from the grocery store!) so they won't hold together through he cooking process.

  

• After 3 minutes, flip the sausage with a fork and add the slided pepper to the pan. You don't need to season the pepper because the chorizo flavor from the sausage will do that
• Remove the sausage and pepers from the pan. Let the sausage cool slightly and then slice it into thin medallions.
• Arrange the quinoa mixture on a plate, top with chorizo and peppers and add some fresh spinach to the plate. Garnish with hot sauce or sriracha if you like some extra heat.

 

You can serve this dish either hot or cold. It makes a great winter meal, hearty and filling on a cooler day, and also tastes great as a cold side dish.  

All the Sausage Laboratory packages (of 3) are $6.  In today's economy, it's important to try to buy from small business owners when you can and stimulate our local economy. Products like this one are also better for your health. I think you will be hooked on this chorizo if you try it once. Enjoy!