Colorful and healthy dish…
It’s beyond amazing to me how I don’t feel lethargic nor sleepy while fasting. Other days, I literally cannot open my eyes nor focus without the intake of caffeine, especially at noon. Aren’t we all ruled by our mind??? While fasting, my mind knows that I cannot eat or drink anything so it would be in dormant stage. Or may be it’s aware that no matter how hard it tries, I wouldn’t fall for it. During other days, my mind is only sure of one thing that it can trick me. How true that if we can rule our mind nothing would be impossible. Having said that, clearly one of the benefits about Ramadan fasting is developing the ability to control our mind and not to let it rule us. Today is the 25th day of Ramadan and tomorrow is the “Night of Power or destiny called as Laylat-al-Qadr”. It’s sad that Ramadan is coming to an end, it did go pretty fast this year.
Hot sunny Summer has almost come to an end, it’s pretty cool these days. I don’t really enjoy hot weather, so I am really enjoying this not so hot not so cool weather.
While browsing through my picasa album, I came across the picture for red quinoa with veggies that I’d made a few months ago. I was surprised that I didn’t post the recipe of this yet. I’ve already shared some recipes with quinoa, well those were made with yellow quinoa. I fancy quinoa, so I was up for trying red quinoa too. In Summer, red quinoa would make a colorful and healthy dish. If you are someone who barbecue and grill a lot during summer, this red quinoa with veggies can be served along with your grilled chicken or steak. Or if you just want to eat something light and healthy, this would be an excellent choice.
Red Quinoa with Veggies
Ingredients
- Red Quinoa- 1 cup
- Water- 2 cups ( or use vegetable stock or chicken stock)
- Carrot-1 large, cut into wedges
- Mushroom, halved- 1 cup
- Bok choy or spinach, chopped- 1 1/2 cups
- Olive Oil- 1 1/2 tbsp
- Whole Cinnamon- 2 inch slice
- Whole Cardamom, smashed- 3
- Whole cloves-3
- Garam masala- 2 tsp
- Ghee or butter- 2 tbsp
- Ground pepper- 1/2 tsp
- Salt- to taste
Instruction
- Rinse the quinoa taken in a strainer under running water, this will help to remove any bitter flavor from the quinoa.
- Place a large cooking pan over medium heat, add oil, let it turn hot.
- Add whole cinnamon, cardamom and cloves to the oil, saute for a couple of seconds.
- Add the veggies (carrot, mushroom and bok choy or spinach), saute for a minute.
- Add the soaked quinoa, combine to the veggies.
- Add salt to it, combine.
- Add water and cook till quinoa has cooked well and the water has almost dried off.
- Add ground pepper and garam masala to it, combine well, cook for a minute.
- Taste and add salt according to your needs.
- Add 2 tbsp ghee to the cooked quinoa and veggies, combine well, cook for a minute.
- Remove from the heat and keep it covered
- Serve this as a side along with grilled chicken/steak or with grilled corn
Tips:
- Instead of water add vegetable stock or chicken stick to make it more flavorful.
- Add any of your favorite veggies.
- Red Quinoa- 1 cup
- Water- 2 cups ( or use vegetable stock or chicken stock)
- Carrot-1 large, cut into wedges
- Mushroom, halved- 1 cup
- Bok choy or spinach, chopped- 1½ cups
- Olive Oil- 1½ tbsp
- Whole Cinnamon- 2 inch slice
- Whole Cardamom, smashed- 3
- Whole cloves-3
- Garam masala- 2 tsp
- Ghee or butter- 2 tbsp
- Ground pepper- ½ tsp
- Salt- to taste
- Rinse the quinoa taken in a strainer under running water, this will help to remove any bitter flavor from the quinoa.
- Place a large cooking pan over medium heat, add oil, let it turn hot.
- Add whole cinnamon, cardamom and cloves to the oil, saute for a couple of seconds.
- Add the veggies (carrot, mushroom and bok choy or spinach), saute for a minute.
- Add the soaked quinoa, combine to the veggies.
- Add salt to it, combine.
- Add water and cook till quinoa has cooked well and the water has almost dried off.
- Add ground pepper and garam masala to it, combine well, cook for a minute.
- Taste and add salt according to your needs.
- Add 2 tbsp ghee to the cooked quinoa and veggies, combine well, cook for a minute.
- Remove from the heat and keep it covered
- Serve this as a side along with grilled chicken/steak or with grilled corn
•Add any of your favorite veggies.
