Spiced Quinoa

I don't know if you read my main blog, or just the recipes here - but our family is making a drastic change to our diet. We are eliminating wheat, dairy, and all heavily processed items and synthetic products - including sugar. So, time to embrace other grains, and I'm starting with the king - quinoa. This is super-duper health food, and has too many benefits to list here. Check out the link below if you don't believe me. I've cooked quinoa before, but only plain, and I didn't think I'd have a chance of converting the kids that way. Hence the spiced version...

Ingredients:

• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 tsp brown mustard seeds
• 1/4 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp ground coriander (cilantro)
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin 
• 1 cup quinoa (washed)
• 2 cups chicken stock (or salted water)
• fresh coriander to garnish

Instructions:

1. pan fry the onions, garlic and mustard seeds in a little olive oil until golden and mustard seeds have commenced popping.
2. add dried spices and quinoa, and fry for a minute or two, stirring so it doesn't stick. Add stock, and simmer gently, covered, and stirring occasionally for about 15 minutes, or until grains are al dente.
3. Turn off, and leave covered for 5 minutes. Water should all be absorbed, so simply fork through and garnish. 

Lion's taste rating: 2/10

Healthy inclusions: 10/10

Unhealthy inclusions: 0/10

My eight year old son said this tasted like curried cardboard. I however loved it - better than brown rice for sure. We had it with poached chicken and yoghurt (soy), and I added chillies to mine. Next step with quinoa is salads and baking...


Info on the good stuff:
quinoa
turmeric
coriander
cumin