Menu Monday: Harvest Quinoa (Keen-wa)

Quinoa sure looks an awful lot like dirt sprinkled on your
plate when you're as shitty a food photographer as I am! 

This recipe could also be called The-Quinoa-recipe-I-submitted-to-the-Trader-Joe's-quintessential-quinoa-recipe-contest-that-doesn't-have-a-snowball's-chance-in-hell-of-winning. But we at Married with Veggies think "Harvest Quinoa" is less of a mouthful.

The trouble with the recipe isn't the lack of beauty in this garden rainbow of a meal (trust me, the camera isn't doing it justice) or an issue with the harvesty yum  of the taste (though Mr. Married With Veggies insists black beans would be a better choice in the dish). 

No. 

The real problem was I decided to include onions under the "binders" category that the contest defines as "salt, pepper, butter, cooking oil, etc," because, really, what  vegan/vegetarian/flexitarian worth her salt doesn't have diced onions in her fridge to throw into the pot at a moment's notice, right? 

I know. I know. I could have dropped the spinach at the end, but I…just…couldn’t…do it. The spinach, she is too much a part of the pretty-pretty of the plate at the end! 

So pull the onions, you say? You can't mean you really want me to sacrifice taste, can you?! 

What about losing the bell peppers or the corn? Yeah, but what part of rainbow are you not getting? 

"Surely, the broccoli could go," you say. "It's green, afterall, and the spinach has that color covered, right?" You know what? It's like you don't even know me anymore! (Insert slammed door sound effect here, please).  

So, yeah. I'm very likely totally disqualified, but you know what? I made up a recipe, like all on my own (insert the sound of a film projector with a little kid quipping "I made this!" here, please). Which means I should probably warn you that there's the ever so slightest possibility that I've worded something ambiguously enough to result in a cooking snafu that could end in anything from a forgotten and very overcooked something or other on the minor end all the way to a burned-out kitchen on the disaster end. I take no responsibility for either, but hey, let the adventure begin!  

  

Team Harvest Quinoa reporting for duty, sir! 

TEAM HARVEST QUINOA 

• 1 cup Trader Joe's Organic Tricolor Quinoa (you can use any brand--even plain--but TJ's tricolor looks like pebble soup while it cooks and that makes me irrationally happy, though if you want to rob yourself of joy, have at it!) 
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 cup diced onions
• 2 TBSP Earth Balance
• 0.25 cups water
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 cups cooked chick peas (or 1 14-oz can, though this was NOT part of our testing)
• 2 cups broccoli florets
• 1 cup red bell pepper
• 1.25 cups frozen corn
• 1 cup baby spinach (packed tightly)

STEP 1. Put the quinoa and veggie broth in a saucepot at high and bring to a boil. The instructions on the back of the package indicate that it's possible to make the quinoa in four minutes in a microwave. Lies! Vicious, vicious LIES! Cook the quinoa on your stove and keep an eye on it if you're a quinoa newbie (when I was a quinoa newbie, I, too thought it was pronounced Quinn-oh-a). Reduce the heat to medium, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes. Seriously, keep an eye on it. I suggest stirring at the 10- and 15-minute marks because your quinoa may well need a little less time or a little more time to soak up the water depending on how high octane the heat on your burner is.

STEP 2. While the quinoa cooks, chop the onions and get them into a frying pan with the butter, stirring to coat, then let them brown (about 5 minutes) while you get the rest of the veggies ready. Cook them longer if you prefer your onions browner; less if you like them on the icky raw side, not that I'm judging you for liking something that will make leave your breath smelling like old socks or anything. There's room in this world for every kind of tastebud and blah, blah, blah. 

STEP 3. Add the chick peas, broccoli, corn, red pepper, and water to the frying pan. It's starting to look kind of pretty already, no? Stir, then cover and cook for 5 minutes. 

Just after the dump.....

STEP 4.  Remove the frying pan from the heat, dump the quinoa  and the baby spinach on top in a mound (truly, it’s impressive-looking) and slowly (I’m serious about the slow bit—be patient or you’ll be cleaning little quinoa bits from your burner for longer than it takes to wolf this thing down) fold everything together until the quinoa and vegetables are mixed in well. The spinach will wilt perfectly from the heat of the food. 

....and just after the very, very patient "fold."

STEP 5.  Divide the Harvest Quinoa into four bowls and allow those eating to salt and pepper to suit their own tastes.

Per serving: 448 calories; 10g fat; 17g protein, 14g fiber (per sparkpeople.com)