Quinoa

Anyone have any good quinoa recipes?  I love quinoa and it is so good for you, just need some direction on what to do with it!  Thanks!

Lately I have have just been replacing rice with quinoa in my daily meals.

I like to use it as a replacement to the rice in Spanish rice.
Last week I replaced the meat in my chili with quinoa.  Didn't miss the meat at all.
I have even used it in my stuffed peppers.

cut an eggplant legnth-wise into long, thin strips. Brush each side with olive oil and bake in the oven at 350 for about 45 minutes, or until crispy and translucent. Make the quinoa, then steam vegetables; my favorite to use in the recipe are summer squashes, bell peppers, broccoli and beats. Put the steamed vegetables into a food processor and puree. Mix the puree with the quinoa and add spices: chile powder, garlic, paprika, coriander, even mint all work surprisingly well. Drop a good amount into one of the eggplant strips and roll it up. To get the eggplant to stick to itself and stay in a roll form, wet your finger with water and dab the edges. And you have eggplant rollups! I serve these with a cilantro-lime vinaigrette from EatingWell magazine (included below). These rollups are super healthy, really easy to make, and they look fancy.

VINIAGRETTE:

1 cup packed cilantro
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup lime juice
1/4 cup orange juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
Pinch of minced garlic

Puree cilantro, olive oil, lime juice, orange juice, salt, pepper and garlic in a blender or food processor until smooth.

The best thing to do is just google "quinoa recipes" there are websites devoted just to recipes of quinoa. Or go to foodnetwork.com and search quinoa or eatingwell.com...

I do this with quinoa:

Boil up a 1/2 a cup to 1 cup with a cube of vegetable stock to flavour it.

Then grab some tomatoes, cut the tops off... spoon out all the bits, and put the cooked quinoa inside them and douse with olive oil, then bake in the oven for 15-20 mins.

You can add onion, garlic, fresh herbs like basil or chives to the quinoa as well.

I also have quinoa as breakfast... but you need a coffee grinder to grind it to a complete powder, then boil it up and add honey, cinnamon and berries and you have a beautiful protein-rich alternative to oats.

www.allrecipe.com ; has great recipes that people submit themselves, I use this site for everything!

Enjoy :)

I make a pilaf to serve with chicken.  I've even come up with a way to just do one serving.

Brown a piece of chicken breast in a 9" non stick pan - it does not have to be fully cooked, just golden brown.  Remove the chicken to a warm plate.  Saute, in the same pan, chopped onion, celery and carrot in a small amount of olive oil until it is golden.  Add minced herbs, a little grated lemon rind and a teaspoon of lemon juice.  Then add 1/4 cup of quinoa and 3/4 cup of broth.  Cover and simmer until nearly done.  Place the chicken breast on top, cover and cook gently until the chicken is done.  Add more broth if needed.

You can add a few pine nuts or slivered almonds, or sunflower seeds, to the sauteed vegetables before you add the grain and liquid.

I often arrange broccoli or asparagus on top of the chicken and let it steam to make a complete meal. 

Yum!  Thanks everyone!

After reading this post, I decided to make quinoa for dinner! Now, my problem is how to figure out the calories, etc. Guess I'll go enter everthing and see where I stand! Thanks for the dinner idea!

clairelaine, I tried your chicken and quinoa pilaf recipe last night, it was delicious!