Applying the A Formula

For the past six months or so, I have been cooking a lot using the so-called "A Formula" ("A" obviously stands for "Annika"). It's a fast way of cooking that I use, for instance, to prepare something for lunch at work. The dishes are either based on brown rice or quinoa and, for two reasons, the cooking time is basically the same as the cooking time of those grains: 1) the rest of the ingredients are washed, chopped etc. while the grains are already cooking and 2) the rest of the ingredients are either left uncooked or steamed in the same pot with the grains (towards the end of the cooking time of the grains). The A Formula can be used to prepare an amazing variety of vegan/vegetarian dishes, and most of those dishes are delicious either warm or cold.

Most of the time I just improvise and apply the A Formula to whatever I have in my fridge and my spice cupboard. The below dish is a delightful example of one of those improvised dishes cooked using the A Formula. It was delicious (although I had feared that it would turn out horrible because of the radishes) and I'm going to try to recreate it one of these days to double-check that the amounts of the ingredients in the below recipe are OK.

APPLYING THE A FORMULA

0.5 dl white quinoa
1 dl water
a clove of garlic
a large carrot
5-6 radishes
1-2 tablespoons of chopped fresh coriander
leek
about 1 teaspoon of curcuma powder
a pinch of chili powder
1.5 tablespoons of extra virgin coconut oil
the juice of a quarter of a lemon
sea salt

1. Rinse the quinoa well.
2. Add the water and the salt in the pot and bring to a boil under a lid.
3. Add the quinoa, the curcuma powder and the chili powder.
4. Peel the garlic and chop it finely.
5. Peel and wash the carrot and cut it into very thin, round slices.
6. Wash the radishes and cut them into very thin slices.
7. Wash the coriander and chop it finely.
8. Wash the leek and cut about 1 cm of it finely.
9. When 5-10 minutes of the cooking time of the quinoa remain, add the garlic into the pot (5 minutes if you want a stronger garlic taste).
10. When 2-3 minutes of the cooking time remain, add the chopped coriander and the carrot slices.
11. When the quinoa is ready, switch the heat off, add the radishes, the leek, the coconut oil and the lemon juice, and mix the ingredients well.
12. Serve straight away, or let the dish cool down (like I did), and enjoy!

Annika