South American Corn & Quinoa Summer Stew

Have I ever told you I can read minds*?

Right now, you're thinking a combination of 3 things:

1. Summer Stew? I feel like I'm running through a sprinkler full of molten lava right now. Why would I eat stew?
2. South American? That's pretty general. There are numerous cultures in South America. How authentic is this recipe?
3. I read on Facebook someone broke into your house while you were home. WTF happened?

Let's begin with #1. This stew has lots of flavor, hearty vegetables, and very little fat or oil - so you can eat it at room temperature or even slightly chilled. Hence a delicious summer stew.

#2 : Yeah. Well, I was trying to find a chilled soup to make this week and kept stumbling across soups from South America that sounded delicious: like Canja de Galinha, which is a Portuguese/Brazilian soup made with chicken & lemon. Of course, ours would be vegan. We also had this package of Quinoa our buddy Pulin brought back from Peru that was begging for a special project. So I started collecting what I liked about all these soups and made this hybrid. I feel like I should be more humble here but I just can't. This soup is really lovely.

#3 : Yes. Someone broke into our home Monday afternoon while I was home. I locked him the bedroom and called the police. They came really quickly but the guy still got away through our bedroom window. Am I OK? Yeah. I mean there are some unpleasant dreams, but that's to be expected, right? We live in a really charming neighborhood with really nice people in it. I still want to love my home, so I'm focusing on that. I've also been thinking a lot about how scary it is to do bad things.

I mean, we've all done things we shouldn't have. Remember how fast your heart was beating and how badly you didn't want to get caught? I'm hoping that the sound of our bedroom door locking and me yelling that I was on the phone with the police was enough to scare this man into choosing other ways to spend a sunny afternoon.

Tomorrow I'll tell you more about what I did wrong in this situation, but let's get back to this freaking AMAZING stew! This stew is like the queen of all the other stews.

Long Live Summer Stew!

We found these Tri-Color Mini New Potatoes... if you can find them, you should check them out!

South American Corn & Quinoa Summer Stew

• 1 1/2 Pounds (24ozs) Small New Potatoes (We found the mini ones you can see above, but if you are using larger ones, you may want to cut them up into smaller cubes.)
• 1 Cup Mixed String Beans (Cleaned and left whole; we found some really nice organic wax and green beans at the farmer's market last weekend that worked perfectly.)
• 6 Cups Better Than Bouillon Vegan Chicken Broth (made per instructions on the package)
• 2 Corn Cobs (broken in half)
• 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
• 1 Zucchini (sliced)
• 3 Tablespoon Fresh Cilantro (diced)
• 1 Tablespoon Cumin 
• 1 Red Bell Pepper (diced) 
• 1/2 Cup Lemon or Lime Juice
• 1/3 Cup Quinoa
• 1 Tablespoon Beer (or ginger ale if you're not into alcohol)
• 4 Cloves Garlic (minced)
• 1/4 teaspoon Black Pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon Hot Sauce
• Slices of Fresh Lemon or Limes

In the largest soup pot you can find, throw in all the ingredients except the Lemon Slices and simmer at a medium heat for around 1 hour. You want your vegetables to be tender crisp, so if you want to, remove it from heat before the hour.

Let your stew sit and cool to room temperature. It might actually take another hour. You can also put it in the fridge to chill. Serve at room temperature or with a slice of fresh Lemon that you can smash into the soup with your spoon when you eat. You may want to serve with extra napkins too. You're suppose to eat the corn off the cob with your hands and that can get a little messy but if you love corn... it will all be OK.


*I actually can't read minds.