To prepare quinoa, you need to look on the front of your bag and find out if yours has been pre-rinsed or not. Quinoa naturally has a bitter coating on it when growing that keeps birds from wanting to eat it. If yours has not been rinsed already, you'll need to rinse it well and drain it using a fine-mesh strainer. The bag will give you instructions on that also.
You will cook it using a 2:1 ratio of water or broth to grain. You cook it about like rice. I like to add herbs and spices at this stage. You'll cook it around 20 minutes or until it absorbs all the liquid. You'll know it's ready when the baby roots are sticking out. They look like tiny tails.
Now you can treat it like a warm salad, or a base for roasted vegetables, or use a simple sauce. I haven't tried it yet as a baked dish, but I looked forward to trying that also.
Roasted Vegetables, Mushrooms, and Quinoa
Y'all know I don't use recipes often and this is another of those times. Use whatever you have coming in from the garden or whatever vegetables you have. You can't mess it up!
Yesterday I had just picked my first zucchini from the garden, so it had to be eaten for supper! I roasted it and some tomato and onions and quickly sautéed some mushrooms.
Here's what I did:
Quinoa - 1/4 cup dry for each person. Cook that up.
Zucchini - cut in a medium dice
Roma tomatoes - about one for each person--cut in a large dice
or
Small handful of cherry tomatoes for each person - leave whole
Mushrooms - cut in quarters or halves. I like this better than slicing because I feel like you get a better burst of flavor that way.
Heat the oven to 425 degrees.
Zucchini or other such veggies will take the longest so get them in the oven first. Put the cut pieces in a big bowl and toss with olive oil or use Missy's Special Herb Mixture. (Add additional oil if you use that.) If you haven't already added herbs, then chop up whatever herbs you have. I like to use rosemary for sure. Then mix up whatever dry spices you want to use. At least use salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Use cumin and turmeric if you have it. Now sprinkle this dry mixture on the veggies stirring or tossing as you go. Spread it all on a big sheet pan and put it in the oven. Read more about Roasted Vegetables here. Roasted Vegetables. Oh My!
Roast your tomatoes in a black skillet or thick pan. Drizzle them with olive oil and add salt and garlic powder. If using Romas, add a little lemon juice because they need a little acid. Put them in the oven but keep an eye on them. Pull them out when the edges get a little brown. Add a little liquid like qhite wine to the pan to get up the little brown bits. (Flavor in the brown!) Read how to make Roasted Tomatoes .
In a pan on the stove or in the oven, put a little bit of butter--a couple of pats--and some olive oil. Let that just melt and then put in the mushrooms and get them coated fairly well. Add more olive oil if you need to. Add some salt and pepper and garlic and stir it all up. Stick in the oven for just a few minutes. 8-10 probably. Pull them out when the color just starts to change a little. You want them to not be all shriveled and cooked down.
When the quinoa is ready, stir that into the pan with the roasted tomatoes and let them love on each other. This is going to make it taste SO good! Then when everything else is ready, either stir the zucchini and mushrooms in the dish or what I like to do is serve the quinoa and mushrooms on each plate and then top with the zucchini and mushrooms--mostly because I want my fair share of mushrooms!
I served this with some just-picked cucumber on the side---diced with salt, pepper, and lemon juice or vinegar. Not swimming in the vinegar but just drizzled.
Eat well, Y'all!! ~Missy
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