Curried Quinoa with Vegetables

Quinoa salads, quinoa as rice substitute, quinoa stew are just a few of the simple ways to incorporate this nutritional powerhouse into daily diet. If buying in bulk, and it is not pre-rinsed, then, soaking and rinsing a couple of times removes the bitter-tasting saponins. Sometimes, I don't mind the bitter flavor, so, I don't rinse as much and just cook it as usual.

Quinoa makes a great substitute for rice for me, as I love to eat rice. Plain hot basmati rice. A lot of it. Between wild rice, barley, quinoa, bulgur, brown rice and cous-cous, I have learnt not to miss plain white rice as much anymore.

Much like rice, quinoa can be cooked on stove top with 2 parts water/stock for one part quinoa. When water is all absorbed and gone, simply fluff and serve.

This recipe of Curried Quinoa with Vegetables is just one possibility: add favorite vegetables and cook them together with quinoa. Or simply cook the plain quinoa, allow to cool a bit, toss with raw salad ingredients; or add to stir-fried or sautéed vegetables.

In this recipe, I cook the veggies and quinoa together, adding a bit more water to account for cooking the veggies.

The Adzuki beans & asparagus salad recipe can be modified to replace bulgur with quinoa. Or, for that matter, the Barley Salad recipe can be adapted to use quinoa instead of barley, leaving all other ingredients the same.

Ingredients
1 cup quinoa, soaked and rinsed
2 Tbsp fresh grated ginger
2-4 cloves of garlic, finely minced
1 medium onion diced finely
favorite vegetables: red cabbage, bell peppers, carrots, green beans, cauliflower, broccoli, turnip greens, chards (or greens of any kind)
other additions: cooked adzuki beans or lima beans or chick peas or any other favorite kind of beans
3 cups water or vegetable stock (more or less, adjust to added ingredients)
1 Tbsp Madras curry powder
salt to taste
1 tsp olive oil
4 Tbsp lemon juice (more or less)

Garnish: chives, spring onions, toasted nuts

Preparation

1. Heat the oil in a pan, add the onions, ginger and garlic, sauté a bit
2. Add in the veggies, quinoa, water, stir well, cover and cook over medium heat till quinoa is done
3. Stir in the lemon juice and garnish with favorite herbs and toasted nuts if preferred