Quinoa This

It's Cooking With Quinoa time again!

I decided to try out a new Quinoa recipe tonight. One of the receptionists at work brought a cold quinoa, bean, corn type dish for lunch yesterday and it sparked two ideas in my head. First, cold quinoa salads are delish. And my lovely friend melissa once introduced me to chop chop. So I'm thinking quinoa chop chop. YEAH?! Bell peppers, corn, navy beans, chick peas, kidney beans, green onion... and quinoa! I could eat it by the spoonful, or by the corn chip full. I'm liking this idea.

But Trent made the most delicious stir fry the other night, using up all of our bell peppers, so that's why I went for idea two. A hot bean and quinoa dish. So I did what any normal person in my position would do: googled it.

Here's what I came up with: (Compliments of allrecipes.com)

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
• 3/4 cup uncooked quinoa
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 cup frozen corn kernels
• 2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the onion and garlic, and saute until lightly browned.
2. Mix quinoa into the saucepan and cover with vegetable broth. Season with cumin, cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes,
3. Stir frozen corn into the saucepan, and continue to simmer about 5 minutes until heated through. Mix in the black beans and cilantro.               

I decicded to give it a shot, follow it to the letter and see how it came out. And by to the letter I mean I used kidney beans instead of black beans, fresh basil instead of cilantro (and def not 1/2 a cup), and 2 cloves of garlic instead of 3. It's the end of the month - I improvised. It turned out great but if I were to do it again I'd use a little less cumin (it's strong) ,and a little less cayenne (it was pretty spicy, but not killer), a little more corn (just because I love it), and of course give cilantro and black beans a shot.

I really liked the concept though and a very esthetically pleasing one too. The red kidney beans, yellow corn, and green basil - beautiful. We had it with BBQ pork chops, Trent's such a good BBQ'er. I chalk this up to a win and can't wait to make chop chop!

Cheers!