Recipe: Quinoa puffed onion rings
Ruth Tal, founder of Fresh restaurants in Toronto, shares her healthy take on the popular pub food choice
It was love that led Ruth Tal to open her very first juice bar in Toronto in 1990, when vegan restaurants and juice bars were mostly unheard of.
"I was 25 and I fell in love with a vegan, who at the time to my parents seemed like a total fanatic," Tal toldNorth by Northwest host Sheryl MacKay.
As she learned more about where food comes from, and the impact it has on the planet, she decided to take the loan she had been given for university through the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) and open a juice bar, which came to be named Fresh.
"My brother and sister who have ten kids prefer that I don't mention that, that I dropped out of ... school and used my OSAP loan to start my business, but everything turned out for the best," she laughed.
Tal now has four Fresh restaurants in Toronto, a location in Moscow, Russia, and is hoping to open one in Vancouver within the next 18 months.
Tal has also co-written five cookbooks with her business partner and chef Jennifer Houston.
She shared her recipe for quinoa onion rings from her latest cookbook Super Fresh with North by Northwest.
"They are healthier than the typical onion rings you get in pubs," she said.
"And that was our intention, because I love onion rings."
Quinoa puffed onion rings
Ingredients:
- 1 cups (375 mL) puffed quinoa, millet, or amaranth
- 1 cups (375 mL) fresh bread crumbs
- 1 tsp (5 mL) sea salt
- 1 tsp (5 mL) garlic powder
- 1 large Spanish onion, sliced thickly and separated into 20 rings
- 1 cup (250 mL) gluten-free all-purpose flour (we prefer Bob's Red Mill)
- 1 batch Dosa Batter
- 4 cups (1 L) canola or sunflower oil, for frying
- Sea salt, to taste
Make quinoa coating
Prepare onion rings
Dosa Batter Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup (250 mL) light spelt flour
- tsp (2 mL) sea salt
- tsp (2 mL) baking powder
- 1/2 tsp (2 mL) curry powder
- cup (175 mL) water
- cup (125 mL) plain unsweetened soy milk
Method:
Tip: Spelt is an ancient grain related to wheat. It has never been hybridized, so it ismore easily digested than other forms of wheat. Some people with wheatintolerances can tolerate spelt, although it is not gluten-free.
To hear the full interview listen to the audio labelled: Ruth Tal talks about the growth of her Fresh restaurant business, and shares a healthy onion rings recipe
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