Food Of The Day: Quinoa

I believe I am the last veggie on earth to get into quinoa.

I've been hearing about it for a year now, as much as I heard about kale chips. I've had a box of quinoa in the pantry for months, but I never got around to making it. I think I was relatively intimidated by the fact I have historically stunk at making rice (I always seem to burn it even though I follow the directions) and quinoa is in the same ballpark.

However, I finally made a plan to try it and I am very happy I did. It's delicious, fluffy, light and tastes nuttier than rice. And it came out perfectly on the stovetop.

Last night I had a bowl (240g cooked, 5 Points Plus) with some baked almond feta, lemon juice and a little kosher salt. So good. 240g is a lot of quinoa, another reason to keep using your food scale.

Today I was jonesing for a light stir fry, so I went to the store and nabbed some carrots, red pepper, peas, zuchinni and scallions. I put 2t olive oil in my wok and stir fried the veg until they were crisp/tender. Gorgeous.



Then I added the 240g of cooked leftover quinoa from last night and heated it all up in the wok. I added a little lemon juice and a touch of kosher salt. Delicious and crazy filling, just what I needed on a day when I was low on Points and high on a need for being full as long as possible.

The 1c of quinoa and the mountain of vegetables made a ridiculous amount of food. Almost embarrassing. Almost.

I can see why quinoa is such a hot topic among foodies and vegetarians/vegans. It's so versatile. A friend asked, "What else can you do with it?"

I answered: "I think it's easier to list what you can't."