Culinary Disasters

Quinoa is one of those ingredients I seem to run into at the grocery store and always in odd weird places so I have taken that to be a sign that well I need to use it.  Luckily Kevin over at Closet Cooking has done a couple dishes with quinoa and the Aztec salad sounded like an awesome first documentable (I love to make up words) experiment.

I hate to say this but for being a vegan friendly dish this was very good and definitely a dish that I am going to have to keep making to have as a quick snack.  Plus it is bloody easy and for summer and spring that equates to more time running around outdoors. 

Since I am lazy and not in a typing mood I am going to leave you with a pointless fact of the day: quinoa is not a grain but rather a seed from the chenopodium or goosefoot plant. 

For this recipe you will need:

• 1 cup quinoa
• 2 cups of water or chicken stock (I used water)
• 4 green onions sliced thin
• 1 jalapenos deseed and finely diced
• 2 cloves of garlic finely diced
• Cup or so of cherry tomatoes cut in half
• Teaspoon of cumin
• Teaspoon of ancho chili powder
• pinch of crushed red pepper
• Good handful of cilantro and parsley finely diced
• Juice from 1/2 lemon
• Good glug of extra virgin olive oil
• Kosher salt and black pepper

In a medium saucepan bring the water to a boil, add in the quinoa, cover, and simmer till the water is gone (about 15-20 minutes).

You should let the quinoa cool but once again my impatience kicked in. Throw the rest of the ingredients together in the nearest large bowl.  Taste and adjust so it fits your tastes, cover, and let it sit in the refrigerator for a couple of hours so the flavors blend together. 

I would have gotten a cooler plating picture but the quinoa got transferred into Tupperware containers for quick on the go snacking.

Tags: Salad, All //