Quinoa and Roasted Vegetables

I made a new dish today that just sounded good. I had no recipe but this is very easy, especially if you have a rice cooker. Quinoa (pronounced Keen-wa) is an ancient grain from the Incas but it is really a seed. It has a very mild taste and you can use it for many things. This one is my new favorite, but my favorite before today was to mix in a little milk and berries for breakfast. Yum! Quinoa is very high in fiber (5 g in a one cup serving) and is considered a "complete" food as it has the right proportions of carbs/fats/protein and has all eight of the essential amino acids. I used red quinoa but it can come in several different colors with a light beige color as the most common.

You cook it just like rice. One part quinoa to 2 parts water (or broth). I used a rice cooker but I have also cooked on the stove just like rice. I roasted some veggies that I had on hand - one red bell pepper, two carrots, a small onion, and about a small handful of asparagus spears. If I had remembered, I think garlic would have made it even better. I did a rough chop in the food processor, but you could use your knife to chop. I was being lazy and Charles is cleaning up tonight! I added it to the cooked quinoa and topped with parmasean cheese. Charles loved it. Logan made gagging sounds but he does that to almost everything new so I didn't take it personally!