Serves 1:
- Rinse 1/4 cup quinoa in cold water.
- Toast uncooked quinoa in a dry pan on low heat until it turns slightly brown and smells like popcorn. Just a minute or two.
- Bring 3/4 cup water to a boil in a small saucepan, add quinoa, reduce to simmer, cook for 5 minutes with lid ajar, stir, cook an additional 5 minutes with lid completely covering pot.
- Stir, make sure most water has boiled off or been absorbed, cover and let sit away from heat for 5 minutes more.
- Lightly steam vegetables. Here I’m using celery, onions, and carrots.
- Add vegetables to fluffed quinoa. Season. I use a splash of tamari and a sprinkle of ground flax seeds or gomasio (toasted ground sesame seeds). Salt to taste.


I’ve been looking for meals I can put together quickly and saw this in my recipe file. I’m not super fond of quinoa but it cooks faster than rice and has a pretty good nutrition profile. May as well…
Suggestions for quick meals are welcome! Frozen vegetables are my new friend.
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Yummy–I love quinoa and also gomasio and tamari–and as you say, fast is good!
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How do you make yours, Melinda?
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Pretty much the way you make yours, but I rinse it really well beforehand to be sure the bitterness is gone. There used to be a way I made rice by cooking it in a baking pan covered with foil in the oven–mixed with whatever I had in the fridge. It might be fun to try quinoa that way too, but mixing it with quick-cooking (or par-steamed) veggies, so they’re all done at once. Oh, btw, I’m trying to make salt-preserved lemons for the first time. They’re so good–great condiment–and easy to make! I’ll let you know in a month if it worked.
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Coming clean in twenty fifteen …
I think the truth is, I just don’t like quinoa. I thought it was the quinoa. Now I realize it’s me.
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