Super food Tuesday

Who knows why this popped into my head today, but I decided to prepare some quinoa for dinner. I have only used it in my cooking once or twice before, so it's definitely out of my comfort zone still.

I prepared the quinoa according to package directions but with chicken stock instead of water to add a bit of flavor-- obviously, veggie stock, or white wine could be used instead of you're vegetarian. I also added in the juice of half a  lemon, and a after I turned the burner off, I threw in a handful of chopped fresh basil (from my "garden" and rosemary which I had on hand). While the quinoa was cooking, I sauteed one thinly sliced baby zucchini and some crushed garlic in some olive oil. At the last second I added in a diced fresh tomato and salt and pepper to taste. The final step was to toss the now fluffy quinoa with the sauteed veggies. I kept the pan on low heat during this step to continue cooking and added in a handful of shredded Parmesan while tossing.


The dish was actually pretty decent. I think that the lemon juice was really what took it from bland to fresh. Normally, this would be a good side dish, but since the quinoa has such great food value it worked just fine as my main dish!