GUEST POST: Asparagus, Parmesan, & Quinoa Waffles!

We are honored to have this post from Laura of the fabulous food blog The Golden Yolk! Laura is probably a big part of the reason I am even this into waffles in the first place, and this post will make it very easy to understand why. Enjoy!

If I remember correctly, a few months ago I tweeted/Facebook/something-or-anothered that I was going to have a savory waffle for breakfast. Leeann was intrigued, as she should be, because savory waffles are in fact, a brilliant way to enjoy a waffle. Sadly, the Birchwood Cafe in Minneapolis, MN is the only dining establishment where I have seen such a waffle. Clearly, that needs to be fixed, but until you can enjoy a savory waffle at your own favorite local establishment, I am here to help you recreate one at home.

To start, the anatomy of the Birchwood's latest savory waffle creation, the Asparagus-Parmesan-Quinoa Waffle:



Yes, it looks a bit overwhelming at first, but I promise it will be one of the best waffle experiences of your life. They do serve it with your typical maple syrup, but I usually only fill a couple squares with it and grab a couple bites with the bacon (any meat-eaters should know that bacon + maple syrup is a winning combo). You really don't need any with the butter, salsa, and perfectly runny egg yolk. It's up to you.

At first, I planned to only recreate the base waffle. Lucky for you, I am a huge overachiever and made every single little thing on there. And you can too! It's really not as hard as it looks, but also, you don't have to! Just enjoy the waffle on its own. It won't disappoint.



Lavender-Rhubarb Butter

1 stick of butter
1 tbsp edible lavender flowers
1 rhubarb stalk, finely chopped

Put all ingredients in a food processor and mix until well combined. Wrap in parchment paper and store in the fridge for up to 10 days. Other than on the waffle, it's great on your favorite slice of bread and smells absolutely amazing.



Kiwi-Kumquat Salsa

1 kiwi, chopped
5-6 kumquats, chopped (including the peels)
1/4 of a red onion, chopped

Simply combine all the ingredients in one bowl. Enough to garnish about 3 waffles. Feel free to adjust the quantities to your liking.



Asparagus-Parmesan-Quinoa Waffle

1 bowl of your favorite waffle batter (I used Mark Bittman's but in the future I plan to try either one of the recipes that Molly of Orangette just posted here)
Quinoa flour (optional, substitute up to 25% of the flour in your waffle recipe)

6-8 asparagus stalks, chopped into small pieces with the tops left in tact
1/2 cup cooked quinoa
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

To serve (all optional):
1 egg (per waffle)
1 strip of bacon (per waffle)
Lavender-Rhubarb Butter
Kiwi-Kumquat Salsa
Maple Syrup

Preheat your waffle iron.

Saute the asparagus in olive oil over medium heat until tender. Mix into the waffle batter along with the cooked quinoa and cheese. Pour into waffle iron and cook as you normally would. Keep waffles warm in a 200 degree oven until ready to serve.

Meanwhile, cook the bacon and eggs. Once the waffles are done, top each with one egg, chopped bacon, a small scoop of lavender-rhubarb butter, and kiwi-kumquat salsa. Enjoy.

Pear & Passionfruit Waffles

So what did we do with our first batch of vegan yeasted waffles? Why, just what any person who had impulse-bought a strange array of fruit during a late-night supermarket run would do: top them with thinly sliced pears and impossibly delicious passionfruit! And then a nice little drizzle of maple syrup, of course.

Laura was kind enough to photograph the process & results:

Recommended serving: with a hot mug of tea, on the makeshift "bed"/blanket nest on which you have just had a very lovely sleepover.

Passionfruit is my new...well, passion (sorry), and has been since I visited Costa Rica in March. The passionfruit there is big, maybe mango-sized, with yellow-orange skin. During our one supermarket trip, our host suggested we scoop up every last passionfruit in the place. "There's no way we'll eat that many," I said, stupidly, "I don't even like them." This statement was based on my one previous experience, during which a friend and I had appreciated the incomparable flavor but been put off by the bizarre texture and vomit-like appearance of the fruit we'd purchased (it was years ago but looking back on it I think we simply got a bad fruit). So, tragically, we did not buy out the passionfruit supply in that little market in Lanas, and I regretted it deeply for the rest of the trip, because that fruit turned out to be everyone's favorite snack. Sweet but tangy, the juice ran down our chins as we crunched the seeds and delighted in the strange little pockets of flesh surrounding them. I can't imagine I'll ever taste that again without feeling like I'm right back in the jungle, lying in a hammock & laughing.

Of course, the passionfruit I bought on a late-night supermarket run here in Michigan last night is not quite the same. From New Zealand, it is much smaller, maybe the size of a typical lime, and purple on the outside. I would not ordinarily buy produce from the other side of the planet, but the hope of tasting a little bit of Costa Rica here at home was too strong to deny. Indeed, the flavor is reminiscent of the fruits I enjoyed there, though the texture is not as enjoyable -- it is quite apparent that these specimens were bred to be shipped around the world and stored, not for superior flavor and mouthfeel.

Of all the delectable tropical fruits I adore, passionfruit may just be my favorite. If you see it around it's worth picking up -- the flavor certainly deserves to be experienced. If you can't find the fruits where you live I do recommend the Haagen-Dazs passionfruit ice cream or the incredible CocoaBella passionfruit chocolates. These are the things tiding me over until I can return to Costa Rica.