Cooking with Quinoa

I really do cook things other than soup. I just didn't have time to blog about them a couple of weeks ago. But I thought I'd catch up and share what I've been doing with quinoa.

First, you might be asking, "What is quinoa, and how do you pronounce it?" Quinoa (say KEEN-wah) is a grain-like plant-based food that provides all essential amino acids (essential amino acids = those that the body cannot produce on its own from other nutrients). After hearing about its health benefits for a couple of years, I finally decided to buy a bag of organic quinoa at Costco the summer before last. Not knowing what else to do with it, I followed package instructions and cooked it in roughly 2 parts water to 1 part quinoa. It tasted how I imagine styrofoam would. So the bag sat in the pantry for a few weeks.

When I was feeling brave enough to give it a second chance, I went to my other favorite cooking reference, myrecipes.com and searched for recipes by ingredient. I found this fun recipe. My modifications are:

• I usually cook the carrots and onion because I like them a little softer than raw.
• If I don't have a fresh lemon, I use lemon or lime juice from the plastic bottles sold in the produce section, and I omit the lemon rind.
• If I don't have fresh basil, I use 1 Tbsp of dried basil instead.
• I use honey dijon instead of plain dijon.
• I'll add other random veggies that I have on hand, such as chopped bell pepper or broccoli florets (fresh or frozen). 

So I learned that the trick is you have to cook the quinoa in something that it can take the flavor of, in this case, broth. I made this recipe for a Meatless Monday about two weeks ago, and the following Monday (last week) I had leftover broth that needed to be used. I wasn't ready for more of the same thing I ate most of the previous week, so I decided to experiment a little. Here's what I came up with:

Ingredients
1/2 c quinoa
1 c broth
About 1 c frozen corn
About 1 c frozen lima beans
1 (15oz.) can lower sodium black beans
Marinated Greek olives

Preparation
Rinse quinoa. Add quinoa and broth to a small pot. Cook on medium-high heat until boiling, then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until quinoa absorbs the broth. Stir as needed to prevent quinoa from sticking to the bottom and burning. (I'm still not great at this!)

Meanwhile, warm frozen veggies on medium heat in a small bit of water until thawed. Drain most water. Turn up heat and add rinsed black beans (rinsing helps reduce sodium further). When quinoa is cooked, stir in veggies and beans. Pit and chop olives (pitting was time-consuming) and stir into mixture to give it a little flavor. Otherwise, add something else like onion, garlic, chopped hot pepper, or the dressing from the recipe cited above.

Wasn't my favorite, but it was quick and works in a pinch when you have random ingredients and don't feel like the old standby. I liked the olives but Ted's not a fan. He ate it anyway because 1) I made him dinner, less than a day after returning from Denver nonetheless, and 2) because he was too lazy to pick the olives out. He said they weren't "that bad." (Ted only likes olives that come out of a can, already pitted and extra salty.) Olive fan or not, just make sure you add something that will give it a little flare!