Pretty Pretty Quinoa

Quinoa is amazing.

We first tried it this summer as a mechanism for dealing with the loads of vegetables we were receiving in our CSA. Lesson #1 for tonight: Sauteed vegetables+ quinoa= an excellent, nutritious meal. Big chef Jamie usually adds a fair amount of cheese which makes it a little more excellent but perhaps a bit less nutritious.


Our favorite go to quinoa recipes are:
Fitness Magazine's Greek Quinoa with Avocados

Quinoa Stuffed Acorn squash- we usually use walnuts and raisins to make a variation of the recipe found here.

But since it's already 7pm and we still want to get to the gym tonight, I thought some type of quinoa salad using the ingredients we have on hand would make an easy and delicious dinner. The meal took about 20 minutes to put together. I (Laura) will once again be playing the role of Big Chef tonight.

Quick note: I've been told that you should rinse or toast the quinoa before cooking it to get rid of the bitter taste. Usually when I try rinsing it, half ends up in the sink, so tonight I tried toasting it for a minute before adding the water.

Quinoa Salad

Ingredients
1/2 cup uncooked quinoa
1 cup water
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 diced red pepper
1/2 cup shredded fresh spinach
1/3 cup finely chopped onion
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese

Directions
Cook quinoa according to package directions. In a pan lightly saute red pepper and onions, add garlic and cook for 1 minute longer. Stir together quinoa, tomatoes, spinach, garlic, red pepper and onion. Mix in lemon juice, oil and balsamic vinegar. Sprinkle with feta.

Lessons learned:
1. Quinoa really is the key to a successful "everything I see" approach to cooking. That is, when I am too lazy to go to the store, and have a random assortment of vegetables to get through, I can rely on quinoa to make a comprehensive meal.
2. I feel better after eating a lighter quinoa meal than I did after half a pan of enchiladas.

Alright, it's gym time.

Laura