Discovering The British Virgin Islands and eating quinoa

The greatest thing about living on a boat is being able to take your home with you on a weekend away. We decided to take her to the west side of the British Virgin Islands to discover anchorages and activities to take our guests later in the season. We visited some beautiful places, and ate some delicious home boat cooked food.

Whilst in St Lucia I managed to pick up some black quinoa from an amazing deli and restaurant called The Starfish. It has travelled all the way up to the BVI with me and I have yet to use it, saving it like a precious gem. This weekend was time to try this black quinoa, I have only ever had white before. Quinoa is one of the healthiest grains out there, loads of protein and fiber and can be easily used instead of rice.

So this is how it started…on Saturday I had been inspired to make Lebanese Fattoush featured on My New Roots Blog. I had been given Zaatar and Sumac at a wedding in Beirut last June so I was glad to finally have a good reason to use it. The salad was so refreshing and zesty. I teamed it with another favorite salad Blackeyed pea salad and dry fried some flat bread. This has been the beginning of our detoxing healthy lifestyle we are trying hard to focus on. It was the perfect meal as we sat in our beautiful anchorage.

<Blackeyed Pea Salad Recipe>

That evening we had some meaty Mahi-Mahi (caught on our Atlantic Crossing) to eat, which I marinated typical Caribbean jerk style. I cooked up some of the black quinoa and combined it with the Blackeyed Pea Salad that we had left over from lunch. This meal looked absolutely stunning and tasted amazing.

Sunday morning we lifted anchor and moved on to the next anchorage. I decided to make some quinoa galettes that I had seen on 101 cookbooks with last nights leftovers. I combined more black quinoa into my quinoa/blackeyed pea salad from last night, then added two beaten eggs, a pinch of salt, some parmesan and some panko breadcrumbs. Next, heating some oil in a pan I put a small handful of the mixture into the pan and patted it down a little into small rounds. I cooked several of these until they were well browned on the bottom then carefully turned them over to brown on the other side. A few fell apart but they still tasted good you just have to be really gentle with them. 

I served these patties to my lovely boyfriend (who loves my meals and gratiously does the washing up) with our leftover fattoush salad. I can tell you that this was probably the best meal we have eaten in days. I will definitely be making these again, perhaps next time I will make them more defined round shapes, or maybe they are better a more rustic shape. What do you think? I am also thinking these would be delicious with some thai flavoring, or perhaps with feta cheese? 

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