Cooking with Quinoa

My sister was hanging out at my house on Saturday and I got the chance to cook for her.  It's rare that I cook a meal for her as usually she does the cooking at her house for family get togethers.  It was just the two of us this time and my first suggestion for dinner was shot down.  I had to come up with something from the pantry that was gluten free.

I knew that I had Quinoa in my pantry so that was my first thought when she told me she wanted gluten free.  My sister threw out the suggestion of black beans with the quinoa and so I started to work on something.  It is so easy to cook quinoa in my electric pressure cooker.  I just follow the instructions but I need to remember to adjust the amount though since the recipe makes a ton.  The base recipe calls for 1 1/2C dry quinoa with 2 1/4C water or liquid.

While that was cooking, I started on a sauce.  I had grape tomatoes in both red and yellow so I quartered those and added to a sauce pan with a little garlic.  Next I added in some broccoli...just the tips though so the pieces were nice and small.  I added about 2/3 can of seasoned black beans and let the sauce simmer.  To serve, I simply put some of the warm quinoa on the plate with a scoop of the black bean sauce.  Over top, I added some slices of fresh avocado and a few crumbles of goat cheese.  It turned out pretty good for cooking without a plan.

I was left with a ton of cooked quinoa even after serving both of us our dinner meals.  I packed it into a couple containers and sent one home with my sister.  Tonight I set out to make another quinoa dish for dinner.  I started with a similar base...sauteed garlic with grape tomatoes.  This time I added a big handful of broccoli slaw to saute.  Once that had cooked, I added my quinoa to the pan to warm.  I also added a little pesto sauce and topped with goat cheese crumbles.  I served this with turkey meatballs and it was a delicious meal.

As I don't normally food blog, I didn't think to take a photo of my plate until after I had eaten a few bites.  Luckily I just turned the plate so that section was at the back!

Pesto Quinoa Saute
1 TBSP olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
10 grape tomatoes, quartered
1/2 C broccoli slaw salad mix
1/3 C quinoa, cooked
1 TBSP pesto

Saute the garlic in olive oil.  Add tomatoes and broccoli slaw mix.  Cover and allow to cook down.  Remove lid, add quinoa and pesto until warmed.  Serve with crumbled goat cheese.