Quinoa is quickly becoming one of our favorites around here. It is one of those super foods (it is believed to help with migraines for those of you who suffer) that is actually quite quick and convenient to make, and packs a huge protein punch if you are vegetarian. A great alternative to brown rice, which takes 50 minutes to cook, quinoa only requires 15 minutes. And with the last-minute dinner planning that has been going on around here, that is right up my alley. Here is what I made last night, inspired by this recipe (unfortunately I had no brussels sprouts- but you can bet I will have some on hand next time!):
Red Quinoa with Spinach and Feta
- 1 cup dried red quinoa
- 2 cups vegetable broth (or water)
- 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 4 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated
- 1/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled
- big handful of fresh baby spinach
- 1/4 cup marinated tomatoes, sliced
- half a lemon
Add parmesan cheese, then spinach and tomatoes. Stir and cover, cook on low for about 10 minutes, or until spinach is wilted.
Add feta cheese, stir, then squeeze lemon on top (I added the lemon after reading this the other day at All Natural Annie’s blog). Plus, it is delicious! And it’s ready. That’s it! We served it with some leftover white bean sweet potato burgers, but a decent helping of just the quinoa would have been plenty of food. It was surprisingly filling!
Mmmmm…we love quinoa over here. I haven’t tried red quinoa yet, but I think I will after seeing this recipe. Yum!
YUMMM!!! Thank you for the shout out 🙂
You can also use quinoa as a great meat substitute to make Skyline chili. Delicious and a little healthier. The red quinoa is better for that than the white so you can convince yourself, at least a little, that the chili is the real thing.
Looks super good! James like the red quinoa way better for some reason (always has to like the pricier option), but it does look a little more exciting as well.
I really need to give quinoa a try! I see so many tasty looking recipes that involve it, but I always pass over them because it’s an unknown to me. I think we need to give it a go. 🙂
yay! I have a big box of quinoa I wasn’t quite sure what do to with – totally going to try this out. Thanks for the tips! I’ll let you know how it turns out.
I’m starving!! This is exactly what I am craving….thanks, Lauren!!
If ONLY I could convince my son that a meal without meat was still a meal…He’s not a picky eater at all but STILL. Boy loves his meat! Gonna totally try this, perhaps with some grilled chicken on the side. It looks awesome to us grownups!
Quinoa is magical and we eat it in everything. It’s such a versatile food. We have recently begun to make a huge batch of regular white quinoa in the rice cooker, and then add in marinara sauce – and I swear to you, it tastes just like Spaghetti O’s to me. Hippie O’s.
Yum! Hooray! We made it last night and it was a huge it…even with Cal! Into the rotation it goes! THANK YOU!
Just wanted to report back that I made this last night for the first time and we all loved it. I used regular quinoa since that’s what I had on hand and I sprinkled it with some toast pine nuts — nice addition! Where do you get marinated tomatoes? I’ve never seen them. I used regular chopped tomatoes, gently folding them at the end so they wouldn’t get mushy. This recipe is definitely a keeper. Thanks for sharing!