12-Bean 5-Grain Turkey Medley

12-Bean 5-Grain Turkey Medley

This is the kind of meal that looks like it should be served on a tin plate but is oh, so, good! Remember that I always double the amount when I reconstitute my dried beans to have some ready for other recipes? Well, there I was in front of the freezer, extra beans in hand, when I spied the leftover Thanksgiving turkey and stock and -- voila! -- an idea began to form. Don't even ask why but I had several different grains on hand, as well, and decided to just throw the lot together to see what might happen. This turned out so good that, if you were a vegetarian, you could simply leave out the turkey and use vegetable stock for the liquid.

For the ingredients: 2 cups cooked 12-Bean mix, 2 cups cooked chopped turkey, 1 cup kernel corn, 1 small chopped onion, 1/8 cup sunflower seeds, 1/4 cup chopped walnuts, 1/4 cup pearl barley, 1/4 cup quinoa, 1/8 cup millet, 1/4 cup brown rice, 1/4 cup bulghar wheat, 1/4 cup golden raisins. Phew!  Herbs and spices, etc.: 1 tablespoon Tang or juice of one orange, 1 teaspoon soy sauce, 3/4 teaspoon sweet basil, 1/2 teaspoon stevia/sugar, 3/4 teaspoon marjoram, 3/4 teaspoon clipped and crushed lemongrass, salt and pepper to taste. [NOTE: Use a measuring cup for the grains and nuts so that you have an idea of how much liquid you'll have to add. If you end up with 1-1/2 cups of grains and nuts, you'll need at least 3 cups liquid. Measure your liquids the same way.]

Using your stock pot over medium heat, sautee chopped onion until just soft (not translucent) in 1 tablespoon olive oil.  Add all grains and nuts; stir until coated with olive oil. Add 2 cups turkey stock, 1/2 cup white wine, the liquid from the kernel corn and any water needed for measured grains and nuts. Bring to boil. Add rest of ingredients, stir thoroughly, and remove from heat. Using SolarWear for safe transport, put covered stock pot in solar oven; go read a book, write your novel, or read blogs!

The Turkey Medley went into the  275F solar oven at 1:30 p.m. and was ready at 4:00p.m. Conventional cooking - 12,000-15,000 BTUs; solar cooking - FREE!  This is probably in the stew category and can be enjoyed all by itself; but, it is just as good, cold, in a sandwich! Never expected that. Maybe you can find other ways of serving it, too.