Quinoa is an amazing grain-like protein source that we have been using in our cooking very regularly. The best part about quinoa is that it’s a complete protein, meaning that it has all the essential amino acids, or in layman’s terms it fills you up super nice. Since quinoa is such a good protein source and much lighter than soy products, we have been using it extensively to “beef up” our veggie dishes (forgive the pun…). So believe the hype: quinoa dishes are great for staying healthy and with all that protein quinoa helps reduce your portions, which is a problem all passionate foodies face…
A super awesome quinoa bowl (recipe)
Serves 4
- 1 cup quinoa
- 1 large green pepper, chopped
- 1 small to medium red/yellow pepper, chopped (optional)
- Half a carton of cherry tomatoes, halved (about a cup)
- One medium sized sweet onion, diced (preferably Walla walla, yum 🙂 )
- 1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
- Half an avocado, sliced
- Juice of one small lime (1-2 tablespoons)
- Salt, pepper, and other spices to taste
Start by cooking the quinoa. If it is commercially available (i.e. packaged) you shouldn’t need to wash it—simply add two cups of water to the cup of quinoa, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for 12-15 minutes.
While the quinoa is cooking, season and fry the sweet onion for a few minutes then add the pepper(s) and fry for another minute or so (you want these to stay crunchy). Also it’s important to add salt somewhere in here, in order to bring out the flavor of the veggies. Once the veggies are nearly done, add the black beans and cook for a minute or so, then add the tomatoes.
Cook until the tomatoes are hot and stir the lime juice into the quinoa, then stir that mixture with the veggies. Serve in bowls, adding generous portions of avocado on top of each.
This dish is great the first time around and stores well for excellent leftovers.